Death's Paw
by emmadactryl
Summary: My response to my own challenge What Happened Next?. Alpha Force are with MI5 and on their first mission- to infiltrate a rights group and find out their involvement in several deaths- but things spiral out of control. COMPLETED!
1. Mission Briefing

**Just thought I'd let everyone know: I did attempt research for this fic and my next one (MI5 etc) but it did my head in. I got a bit confused with "agents" and "officers" and loads of other stuff. Apologies if some things aren't right in this fic or details are hazy but I did attempt the research. I was unsure as to what Paulo and Hex's last names were so I have made them up. Just to let everyone know, this story will not just be all action, mission, excitement. There may be a few trivial little "extra storylines" running through the entire thing. I'm really working on my writing for this fic and trying to set it out like an actual book-book. If you're confused, don't worry as it isn't really important.**

Alex had never felt more nervous in his life. He twitched and jumped his leg up and down, making a gentle thump on the floor. A hand on his arm made him stop.

'Alex, mate. Relax.' Hex's face was serious, but his green eyes twinkled, betraying his own excitement.

'I know,' sighed Alex. 'But it's just so...'

'Awesome?' Anglo-Chinese Li peeped around Hex's shoulder, her head tilted on one side.

'Freaky was the word I would use, Li.' Ebony skinned Amber, sitting across from Hex, raised an eyebrow, her American accent sounding loud in the relative quiet of the corridor.

Paulo, perched on a chair beside Amber, waved his hand in the air. 'I vote awesome,' he grinned. 'Just think, in a few moments we could-'

'Sorry to keep you all waiting.' Tanya Henderson, a pale skinned young women with flaming red head, appeared in the doorway a metre or so from where Alpha Force sat. 'He'll see you now.'

Alpha Force slowly stood and shuffled towards the office, glancing anxiously at each other. Once inside the spacious office, their nervousness increased.

'Don't look so worried,' a voice chuckled. 'Take a seat.' A 40-something man sat behind his desk, smiling a welcome at the five newcomers and pointing to several chairs in front of where he sat.

'Do you mind if I go?' Tanya asked. 'Or do you need me for anything?'

'No, no. You can go. Last time I checked you were severely behind on your paperwork.' The man tried to look stern as Tanya grinned, making a hasty exit from the office.

'But it's so _boring_,' Tanya whinged, her voice muffled by the door.

'I can hear you, Tanya!' The man shook his head and turned back to Alpha Force. 'Right. Amber, Li, Paulo, Hex and Alex. I'm delighted to meet you all. I'm Harry Field.' He reached over the desk and shook the five friends' hands. 'But enough chatter. You're probably itching to find out what I have in store for you.' Harry reached into a draw under his desk and pulled out a Manilla folder. 'It's probably best if you read it for yourselves. You all did excellently in training and have been shut up in here for months. After what John Middleton has told me about you five as well, I felt that you are all more than capable of going on your first mission.' He handed a sheet of paper to each member of Alpha Force. They eagerly took them and began to read.

**Mission Briefing **

**Amber Middleton, Li Cheong, Alex Craig, Hex Smith, Paulo Varela **

**Information Contained In This Briefing Is Classified**

_**Equal Rights**_**is a radical extremist group based in Bournemouth. They are against cruelty to anything or anyone in any form. Animal, environmental and human rights supporters, **_**Equal Rights**_** has been responsible for a number of violent protest stunts in recent years (see section titled ****past and present****) and believe that their way is the only way.**

**Alva Silva**** is the leader of **_**Equal Rights**_**. At 43 years of age, she has been arrested numerous times, all in relation to acts brought about through **_**Equal Rights**_**. It is believed that she is paying various high ranking police officials as she has never been convicted and any evidence proving she was responsible will always disappear. **

**Greta (18), Theodore (25) and Lilia (23) Silva**** are Alva's three children. They are all active members of **_**Equal Rights**_**. Greta has one daughter, ****Heidi Silva (2)**** and is expecting her second children in November. Theodore is married to ****Tricia Parks (24)**** who is also involved in **_**Equal Rights**_**. **

**Past and present**** events that **_**Equal Rights**_** have been involved in number many. Various protest marches in front of laboratories that test on animals have been held, the majority getting out of hand. A fire in a warehouse that supplied one of these laboratories was reported last year, however no charges were made, despite the fact that **_**Equal Rights**_** claimed responsibility for the arson attack.**

**Robert Hilders (63), Gerald First (58) and Iola Martin (35)**** have all been murdered during the past month. Although no one has claimed to be responsible, it is believed that **_**Equal Rights**_** is the organisation that carried out the murders. The three deceased were all part of **_**One Way Forward**_**, a committee working on a development in the Middle East that would force hundreds of poverty-stricken villagers from their homes, leaving them with nothing. **_**One Way Forward**_** argued that the villagers would not be evicted from their homes, but **_**Equal Rights**_** discovered that the development would cause potentially fatal harm to anyone left in the area. Several endangered or threatened species of animals would also suffer as would the environment. Petitions and peaceful protests got them nowhere and it is believed that **_**Equal Rights**_** took the next, drastic step and killed the three high ranking committee members as a warning to **_**One Way Forward**_**. The development is still going ahead and the committee members fear for their safety. Already a number of them have resigned. It is believed that the three deceased were blown up in their own homes, though how this was achieved is uncertain. **

**The five officers on this mission will be required to infiltrate **_**Equal Rights**_**, befriend the Silvas and find out as much as possible about the organisation's involvement in the murders of the three committee members and what plans **_**Equal Rights**_** has for the future, especially concerning **_**One Way Forward**_**. **

**For the duration of this mission, the five officers will pose as friends who have met through various environmental, human and animal rights protest events. They will assume the following identities (see separate booklets for more detailed information);**

**Amber Middleton: Amber Henry. Came to live in London from Boston three years ago and moved to Bournemouth one year ago. Involved in extensive activist work for animal, environmental and human rights. Parents both environmental activists. **

**Li Cheong: Li Yang. Animal rights activist. Born and raised in London but travelled extensively. Started residing permanently in Bournemouth six months ago. Became interested in animal rights after seeing cruelty cases in China and Korea. **

**Alex Craig: Alex Hood. Human and animal rights activist. Met Hex Johnson in young offender's institution and convinced him to join in with activist work. He has lived in Bournemouth for two years. Served time when 15 years of age for robbery. **

**Hex Smith: Hex Johnson. Served time in a young offender's institution for breaking and entering when 15 years of age. Involved in activist work after meeting Alex Hood. Moved to Bournemouth four months ago. **

**Paulo Varela: Paulo Ortiz. Moved from Argentina to London two years ago and to Bournemouth from London eight months ago. Environmental activist with an interest in animal rights.**

'So?' Harry asked. 'Do you all think that you can handle it?'

Alpha Force nodded eagerly.

'Definitely,' Amber said for them all.

'I'm a bit short on senior officers at the moment; half of them are helping MI6 with an overseas investigation.' Harry took the papers back and slotted them into the Manilla folder before tucking it back into his drawer. 'As I said before, John told me a lot about you five and the work you've all done over the past few years. He said that you're perfectly capable of dealing with bad situations and you work well as a team. Normally I would only put a few officers on a case like this but it's your first mission and you seem to work better as a group.' He smiled at his five officers. 'So do you want to give it a go?'

'Sure thing,' Alex nodded. 'We'll do our best.'

'Excellent!' Standing up, Harry beamed. 'You've got two weeks to memorise everything about your new identities. We'd get you all in there sooner, but you'll need time to work on your IDs and there's a big protest rally on the...' He flicked through a notebook on his desk. '13th of August. I'll see you at the end of the week to check up on your progress.'

* * *

'What young offender's institution did you serve time in and for how long?' Amber was sitting sideways on a ripped armchair, her legs draped over the armrest. She drummed her fingers on her leg.

'Feltham, West London. 90 days. Alex was in for 30 days.' Hex smirked and pointed a finger at Amber. 'It's right. I know it is.'

Sighing, Amber flung the booklet at Hex. It was the day before they would leave to start their mission. The week before they had returned to Harry Field's office and impressed him with their memory skills. Now, with rain pouring down outside, Amber was making sure Hex had learnt everything possible about his new identity.

'Glad to hear it,' Amber said, getting up from the chair with difficulty. 'I'd hate it if I ended up dead because you couldn't remember some small, trivial detail about yourself.' She stretched and started walking towards the living room door, towards the hallway and the kitchen beyond it. 'I hear a pizza and it's calling my name.'

'It's probably swearing at you,' remarked Hex as he trailed after Amber.

Pulling open the freezer door, Amber pulled a frozen pizza out and chucked it into the microwave, jamming the dial around and slamming the door shut.

'Prepared with love,' Hex snorted.

'You wish.' Amber hunted around in the cupboard for plates and, failing to find any, ended up grabbing two pieces of paper towel off a roll on the kitchen bench. She dropped the paper towel onto the table and glanced about her with her hands planted on her hips.

'What?' Hex asked suspiciously.

'Do you actually have anything to eat off or drink from?'

'Um...' Frowning, Hex wandered about his tiny kitchen, pulling open various cupboards and drawers. After a few minutes searching he returned to the table and sat in one of the chairs. It creaked ominously as it took his weight and Hex looked at it in alarm.

'I take it that's a no,' sighed Amber. She pulled a bottle of soda from the fridge and put it in the centre of the table. 'You'll have to put up with my germs then.'

The microwave pinged, announcing that the pizza was ready and would love to be eaten. Amber eagerly jabbed at the button and pulled the pizza out. 'Ah! Hot!' She flicked the pizza onto a piece of paper towel and sucked her fingers, gagging at the taste of the sticky dough that had also attached itself to her hand. 'Burning!'

'You ok?' Hex asked, grabbing a relatively clean knife from the drawer and hacking into the pizza.

'Fine.' As Amber went across to the sink to run her fingers under the cold water, her mobile vibrated in her jeans pocket a second before it began to ring. 'Crap.' She glanced around at Hex as she tried to peel the dough from her fingers. 'Can you grab that?'

Hex raised his eyebrows but walked across to Amber and pulled the phone out of her pocket, glad she was wearing baggy jeans. 'Hello?'

'Hex? Is that you?' The voice sounded tinny through the phone but there was no mistaking the Geordie accent.

'Yeah, Alex. It's me.'

'Harry just rang. He wants us to go and meet him now for a final briefing. Bring any clothes and other bits you'll need for the mission as we'll be leaving for Bournemouth straight after.'

'What? Why?' Hex sat down on the plastic chair again, wincing as his knee cracked against the table leg.

'We're meant to live there so it'll look better if we go to the event from where we'll be staying. Got it?'

'Yep. I'll tell Amber. Um... We might be a little while though because we're at my flat and Amber will have to go back home to pick up her stuff.' In the kitchen, Amber had her head pressed next toHex's trying to hear the conversation.

'Give me the phone,' she whined.

Hex pushed her head away and stood up. 'We'll be there in about half an hour, 45 minutes. See ya.' He flipped the phone shut and handed it back to Amber.

'What's that about having to get my stuff?'

'We're leaving for Bournemouth after a final briefing with Harry. I'll go grab my stuff and then I can drive you over to your flat.' Hex was already leaving the room, trying to remember where the list of things he had to take was.

'Need help?' Amber called.

'No.' Muffled by three walls, Amber had to strain to hear Hex's voice.

'I'll clean up then.' Amber regarded the pizza with distaste, not having forgiven it for burning her. Who knew how long they would be on this mission for and she doubted that Hex would want to come home to a mouldy pizza. Sliding four pieces into a takeaway container, she dumped the other half of the pizza in the rubbish. After knotting the rubbish bag, she walked to the front door, carrying the bag and the container.

'Ready?' Hex was already standing by the door, coat on with his keys and bag in one hand.

'That was quick,' Amber said, blinking at him.

Hex shrugged. 'Don't need that much stuff. And,' he added, 'we have a deadline.'

'Is there a rubbish bin somewhere?' Holding up the black bin liner, Amber tapped her foot.

Handing Amber his bag and car keys, Hex took the rubbish off her. 'If you go put that in the car, I'll dump this is the bins round the back.' He walked out the door and turned left, heading towards a rickety staircase on the end of the walkway. 'Won't be long,' he called over his shoulder.

Amber went right, down a staircase and unlocked Hex's battered car. She chucked his suitcase in the back and slid into the passenger seat. Their mission would be starting in a matter of hours. Their first mission with MI5. Amber felt nervous but also excited; she didn't want to muck it up- lives could depend on their success or failure- but she was back doing what she loved, with the four people she loved most in the world. Things couldn't have been better.

**There we go; chapter one. Hope everyone liked it. I am on my Easter break (only 10 days unfortunately) starting tomorrow afternoon so I may have another chapter up by the end of the week or earlier. The final chapter of A Haunting Truth is on its way and should be finished soon as well. **


	2. Meet the Gang

**Revamped Bournemouth slightly so it fits better with my story. **

'Home sweet home,' Li muttered. She'd just stepped through the door way of a poky flat in Bournemouth. The flat had two tiny bedrooms, a kitchen that you'd miss if you took more than three steps through it, a bathroom and a living room that also doubled as a dining room. This was to be Li and Amber's home for the duration of the mission.

'It's very... quaint.' Joining her friend in the hallway, Amber dumped her bags with a sigh. 'Wonder what the guys got?'

* * *

Amber needn't have worried. Alex, Hex and Paulo weren't exactly staying in the Ritz either. To stick with their cover story, the five friends had been deliberately given tiny, inexpensive flats. Amber and Li were sharing a flat but the three boys had all been assigned their own accommodation, although they were relatively close to one another.

Hex's flat reminded him of home. It was roughly the same size and set out in almost exactly the same way. He chucked his one, black bag on the sofa before crossing the room to the window. The curtains were dusty and they seemed stiff, like they hadn't been drawn for a while. Hex pulled them open and looked out across the road to the park opposite. Although it was ten o'clock at night, preparations were already underway for the protest rally tomorrow. In just under 12 hours, Hex would start the mission properly. It was a nerve-racking thought.

For Alex, his first step into his flat brought a bruise. A furry rug, left in the middle of the hallway, got caught around his ankle and sent him pitching forward, straight into a small table.

'Ahhhhh!' Alex cried before hurriedly clamping his mouth shut. He had to keep reminding himself that he wasn't out in the moors of Northumberland any more; he was in a built up area with heaps of other people who were trying to sleep. Climbing to his feet, Alex fetched his bags which he had flung up the corridor when he collided with the table. If beginnings said much about endings, this mission was going to finish in disaster.

Reclining on the couch, Paulo sighed and stretched. Unlike Alex, his entrance to his flat had been uneventful and he quickly settled himself on the couch and flicked the TV on. Nothing interesting seemed to be on and he was about to switch it off when a news bulletin interrupted the program.

_'Breaking news from Exeter. Andrea Darby, a 36 year old working with _One Way Forward_ has been the latest victim in a spate of violent attacks.'_ The news lady disappeared as they cut to footage of a house, although you couldn't tell from the pictures. It had been destroyed beyond recognition. _'The past three attacks have all been on members of _One Way Forward_ who live away from built up areas. This time their target lived in suburbia. Along with Miss Darby, five other people including two children were killed and another three have been taken to hospital in a critical condition. According to witnesses, the house was "blown sky high".' _

Paulo stared in shock at the TV as various images of the destroyed house flicked across the screen. He grabbed the phone but before he could dial, it rang.

'Hello?' Paulo knew it would be one of five people. They were the only ones who knew this phone number.

'Oh my God. Did you just see the news?' Li's voice sounded shocked.

'Yeah. I was about to call Harry.'

'Already did. Amber called as soon as the bulletin started. He said to be extra careful and to really watch our backs. We'll be pulled out the minute he even gets a whiff of danger.'

Paulo spun the telephone cord around his finger, watching as it twisted. He sighed down the line. 'I don't know if we can do this, Li. What if we botch it up?'

'Then we botch it up,' answered Li. 'We can only do our best, Paulo. We just need to be really careful and try not to give anything away.'

'Right. I'm just nervous, that's all.'

There was a slight pause before, 'Me too.'

Paulo hung up feeling slightly better. At least he wasn't the only one who felt apprehensive about this mission. _It's just like Alpha Force,_ he kept telling himself. _We're helping out people and keeping people safe but this time we have back-up. _He still didn't feel reassured but decided he was probably just tired. After eating some sort of microwave dinner with way too much packaging, Paulo went to bed, too exhausted to worry about anything.

* * *

'Say no to evil devils! Say no to evil devils!' The crowd roared as one, the sound travelling out of the park and past the houses clustered about them. Amber yelled as loud as she could, feeling amazed at the turnout and slightly frustrated. With hundreds of people in the park, what was the chance that they were going to casually bump into Alva Silva or any of her children? _Almost nil_, Amber thought with annoyance.

'Say to no evil devils! Say no to evil devils!'

'Ban animal testing!'

'Look at the suffering you cause!' This cry was led by a large group of people on the park's eastern side holding huge placards with picture of animals covered in welts and filth. Some were missing eyes, others had lost limbs, others had lost their lives. The protestors were waving the signs angrily and yelling at the top of their voices. 'Or can't you stand to see their poor, defenceless faces? Can't you handle the suffering?'

There was a lot of confusion up on the stage that had been set up the day before. A small group of mothers held their daughters close and blinked at the crowd in confusion. They had been told this was going to be a beauty and talent competition and they had ended up in the middle of a protest rally. The mothers didn't think about the sponsor of the competition and how they tested their beauty products; all they had on their minds was getting away from the crushing mass of people. A representative of the company peeked nervously from behind the curtains, a mobile clamped to his ear and a worried frown wrinkling his forehead.

Hex glanced about him and realised he'd lost his friends.

'Bugger,' he growled, trying to see over the heads of the people crowded about him. Failing to find them, Hex pushed backwards, trying to get to a relatively clear spot so he could phone Alex.

'Oof!' The groan came from behind him and Hex spun around to see a tall, thin man clutching his chest.

'Oh! I'm really sorry. Did I elbow you?' Hex had to try and keep the utter delight out of his voice. He'd found one of their targets.

'Yeah, but don't worry about it. I'm fine.' The man straightened up and grinned. 'Name's Theodore, but don't call me that. Much prefer Theo.' Theo extended a hand and shook hands with Hex.

'Hex.'

'Nice to meet you, Hex.' Theo glanced about him and rolled his eyes. 'I'm glad so many people have turned out but this is insane!'

'I know.' Suddenly thinking of an idea to get his friends to meet Theo, Hex added, 'I was trying to get to somewhere a bit quieter to call my friends. We got spilt up somehow.'

'Easy with all this crowd,' Theo chuckled. 'Come on. I'll help blaze the trail for you.'

Hex followed Theo through the crowds and to the back of the park.

'Thanks,' Hex said as he hit one of the speed dial buttons and waited for Paulo to pick up.

'Hex? Where did you get to? One moment you were there. The next...'

'I'm fine. Just got literally carried away by all the people. I'm standing on the western side of the park, near the stage. It's best if you come to me.'

'Oh.' The tone in Hex's voice was unmistakable. He'd found something or someone. 'Sure thing. I'll tell the others and come right over.' There was a click as Paulo hung up.

'My friend's will be here in a minute,' Hex explained to Theo. Deciding it was best to sink his teeth into the mission, Hex said, 'So what brings you to this demonstration? Against animal testing?'

Theo nodded emphatically, his head bobbing so much Hex thought it would fall off. 'We're supporters of animal rights, human rights and environmental rights. A lot of people seem to forget the environment when it comes to rights. Doesn't every plant, every grain of sand, every waterway, deserve rights just like you or me?'

Hex nodded, a thoughtful look on his face. In his head he was screaming _NUTCASE_ but on the outside he was an interested and hanging on to Theo's every word. 'I'm more into the human and animal rights but neither can live without the environment, right?'

He'd obviously said something right as Theo's grin grew wider and he nodded his head wildly again. 'That's amazing!' he cried. 'Do you mind if I use it for a slogan?'

'Go ahead. Anything I can do to help.'

By this time, Alex, Paulo, Li and Amber had arrived. As they caught sight of Theo they made sure to keep their expressions neutral.

'There you are! We've been looking _everywhere._' Amber pretended to have just noticed Theo lurking in the background. She blinked and looked at Hex. 'Who's your friend?'

'Oh. This is Theo. Theo, these are my friends; Li, Alex, Amber and Paulo.' Hex pointed to each person as he said their names. They nodded at Theo and murmured their hellos. There was an awkward silence while Alpha Force tried to figure out how to casually bring _Equal Rights_ into the conversation. Theo saved them the hassle though.

'So you're all into animal rights then?' he asked, head on one side.

Alex decided to answer for all of them. 'Pretty much. We're all for it but Hex and I have a sideline with human rights, Amber's for human and environmental rights and Paulo's into environmental rights. We support all three though.'

Theo smiled. 'You're my kind of people,' he said. 'We need more of your type in our world.'

'So you support animal rights, Theo?' Li dug the toe of her boot into the soft grass, wondering when things were going to start getting more interesting.

'Yeah. I was just telling Hex, actually. My mother and younger sisters are heavily into as well.' Squinting against the glare, Theo looked about. 'They're around here somewhere. They'd love to meet you.'

Alpha Force shared a quick grin and a thumbs up while Theo was distracted. Things were moving into place rapidly and they were thankful for that.

'Act casual,' Paulo murmured as they followed Theo through the crowds towards the front of the park.

'Mum!' Theo waved a hand frantically in the air, trying to catch the attention of a black haired woman under a clump of trees.

'Theo? I was wondering where you got to.' Alva rolled her eyes heavenwards as her son burst out of the crowd, Alpha Force following close behind. 'You're way too social,' she grumbled but a smile played at the edges of her mouth and she soon lost her mock angry look, smiling gently. 'Introduce me, Theo.'

'Amber, Hex, Paulo, Li and Alex. This is my mum, Alva.'

'So nice to meet you,' Alva said as she shook the five friends' hands. 'Lovely to see some young blood at our protests, apart from my children of course.' She frowned at the space immediately about her. 'Speaking of which, where did my two girls go? Greta's a couple of years younger than you five but Lilia would be around your age, I think.'

'Heidi! What the _hell_ are you doing?' The slightly shocked voice easily reached the little groups' ears.

'And then there's my granddaughter,' Alva chuckled as a plump two year old raced out from a clump of bushes, giggling happily. She spotted her grandmother and ran to her, blonde pigtails bobbing. Alva scooped the little girl up and kissed her nose. 'What have you done now, you cheeky little thing?'

A blonde haired young woman walked up to them and stopped in front of Alva and Heidi. 'You're lucky mummy isn't around, Heidi,' she said with her eyes wide. Heidi gulped and covered her face with her little hands, making an _eep_ sound.

'Lilia,' scolded Alva. 'Don't scare your niece.'

Lilia grinned and shook her head. 'Oh no!' she squealed. 'Here comes mummy! We better run.' Heidi squirmed out of Alva's arms and dropped to the grass. Lilia took her hand and they ran away, laughing.

'What's she doing now? Corrupting my daughter?' Greta Silva appeared behind them. She waddled, one hand pressed against her stomach, swelled with six months of pregnancy. Collapsing gratefully into a chair, Great fanned herself with a flyer. 'I know it's summer but it's still Britain. Does it have to be so bloody _hot_?'

'Stop whinging,' Theo sighed. He turned his back on his youngest sister and addressed Alpha Force. 'We've got another protest rally on the 16th. Do you think you can make it? We won't be in town; there's a research facility down the coast about two hours away that not only uses animals but their polluting waterways as well.'

'We'd love to,' Hex said after sharing a quick glance with his friends. 'Tell us when and where and we'll come down.'

'Awesome.' Theo wrote the details down on a recycled piece of paper and pressed it into Hex's palm. 'I doubt it'll be such a big turnout but there'll definitely be me, mum, Lilia and my wife, Tricia. And you guys of course.' He shook hands with them all before waving goodbye. 'See you then!'

* * *

'Lovely guy,' Li announced suddenly. It was seven o'clock. She and Amber were sitting in front of the TV, eating macaroni and cheese with carrots and broccoli.

'Who?' Amber asked, her voice muffled due to the pasta filling her gob.

'Theo. He seems very nice.'

'He's married, Li.' Swallowing the mouthful of food, Amber grinned at her friend.

'Huh. That's real nice. All I say is "lovely guy. He seems very nice" and suddenly I'm being accused of fancying the guy.' Li shook her head.

'Nah. I retract my last comment. You wouldn't put Paulo through all the heartbreak.'

'Ha! You can talk.'

'What? What am I talking about?' Amber speared another forkful of pasta, hovering the loaded utensil halfway between her mouth and bowl.

'You know exactly who I'm talking about. I'm sure he's the reason you haven't got really serious with any guys.'

Amber dropped the fork into her bowl. 'What would you know? Maybe I don't want to get serious with anyone.'

'I know one person you probably would want to,' muttered Li. Unfortunately for her, Amber heard. Growling, Amber plonked her bowl onto the coffee table and faced Li, hands on hips.

'Look. We have to share this flat for the next God knows how many weeks. If you're going to act like you're acting now, then it's going to be very miserable for both of us.' She glared at Li who bit her lip and pulled a pillow up to hide her grin. 'You think I'm joking? For Christ's sake, Li. Can't you take anything seriously?' Amber strode out of the room, down the hallway and out the front door, slamming it for good measure.

For a moment after Amber left, Li sat in silence before bursting into hysterical laughter. 'Sorry, Amber, but I can't take anything seriously that has something to do with your warped relationship with Hex.' Li felt guilty and cowardly not saying that to Amber's face but she had a bad idea she knew what Amber would have done had she came out with that sentence while her friend was in the room. 'Better to be a living coward than a dead hero, I guess.'

* * *

'Theo?' Alva's voice sounded strained. 'Darling, I need to have a word with you.'

'What's up?' Theo came into the study drying his hands on a tea towel. He sat in a swivel chair across from his mother.

'I know you're very sociable. That's part, a wonderful part mind you, of your personality. Your new friends are lovely but next time check with me before inviting them along to a rally. We've just met them. I mean, they could be anybody.'

'Oh. Sorry. I just thought... I mean you're always saying how we should get more people to join us and... I can tell 'em it's cancelled.' Theo looked crestfallen and Alva's voice softened.

'No, no, no. Don't do that. They seem nice and I suppose one rally can't do much harm.' After taking a sip from her wine glass, Alva smiled at her son. 'Who knows? Maybe they could join?'

'Really?'

'We'll see,' Alva said lightly, happy at the more cheerful look on her son's face. 'Let's wait and see how the rally unfolds and then I'll think about giving them the initiation test. If they pass, well... They can join us I suppose. But don't get your hopes up,' Alva warned, catching sight of Theo's grin. 'They mightn't even turn up. They might be completely wrong for our organisation. They mightn't pass the initiation. As you are well aware, Theo, some things are out of our control and as much as we'd like to, we can't change them. Ok?'

'Ok.'

'That's my boy.' Alva stood up and stretched. 'How's tea coming along?'

'Just about ready.' Theo looked steadily at his mother. 'Thanks.'

'For what?'

'Trusting me. I won't let you down.'

'Of course, sweetie. I don't doubt you for a second.'


	3. Sabotage

Li had no idea when Amber came back but when she got up in the morning, she could hear the shower running. Sitting at the table with a bowl of cornflakes in front of her, a glass of orange juice in one hand and a novel in the other, Li didn't hear the water stop running. When she looked up again, Amber was in the kitchen dressed in a jeans and a t-shirt, slotting two pieces of bread into the toaster.

'Morning,' warbled Li cheerfully.

'Humph.'

'What sort of a greeting is that?' Li asked.

'The sort of greeting you get when I'm still pissed off at you.'

'Amber.' Li got up from the table, dumped her bowl and glass in the sink and walked across to her friend. 'Live a little.'

'Don't try and make it up with me, Li. I'm not buying it.' Amber turned so that her back faced Li. She regarded the toaster with a sudden interest.

'Am I right though?' She paused. 'You can tell me,' Li prompted. 'I won't tell anyone.'

Silence.

'Amber?' Li tapped her friend's shoulder. 'Hello?'

Finally Amber turned around but her face was anything but friendly. 'I know you're one of my best friends, but stay out of my life,' she said icily. The bread popped up from the depths of the toaster, golden brown and burning hot. Amber quickly plucked her breakfast from the toaster and slapped it onto a plate. She looked up to see Li's hurt face and she lost the majority of her anger. 'Sorry I snapped. I'm just... tired and nervous and feel like I'm completely out of my depth.'

'It's ok. You're right. I shouldn't pry. Your life, your business.' Li chewed her lip. 'I feel the same. It's like we've suddenly been shoved off the tallest dive tower at the pool and we're on the way down, wondering whether we're going to hit the shallow end, the deep end or the pool edge.'

'You're full of wisdom suddenly,' Amber remarked, spreading butter and jam onto her toast.

'I'm also full of wisdom on _other_ topics. Hint, hint.' Li nudged Amber with her elbow until she was given a death glare.

'Uh uh. No way. My business. We went over this, what, one, two minutes ago?'

'Fine, fine. I'll drop it. But I am _really_ good at both keeping secrets _and_ helping people out with their problems.' Seeing Amber's withering and slightly violent look, Li hastily added, 'Just so you know. Not suggesting anything. But any time you want to talk or you need advice...'

'Can we focus on the mission now?' Finishing the last bite of toast, Amber crossed the kitchen and slid her plate into the sink. 'Since you were so horrid, you can do the washing up.' She walked haughtily out of the room, as Li moaned.

'Noooooo!'

* * *

'Why did we have to bring Hex's car?' Li managed to pull her arm out of where it had been sandwiched next to her side, reached across Alex and whacked the owner of the car on the back of the head. 'Even _my_ car is more roomier than this.'

'Shut up and enjoy the ride.'

'How can I "enjoy the ride" when I'm squished between Alex and the door with my knees up around my ears?' This came from Amber and she wasn't exactly exaggerating.

'Stop whinging,' Paulo said, trying to keep the grin off his face. Somehow he'd scored the front seat and had more leg room than any of them.

'How would you like it back here? Stop the car, Hex, and I'll swap spots with Paulo,' Li said.

'No way. We're nearly there. Paulo can sit in the back next time and someone else can have his seat.' Hex gripped the steering wheel tightly as a chorus of "me!" rang out in the tiny car. 'Or, if you don't shut up, Paulo can go in the back and no one will come in the front.' The voices immediately fell silent and the next half hour passed uneventfully.

'We're h-ere!' Amber sang brightly. 'Now let me out of the crap-mobile.' She struggled to open the door and fell into an undignified heap on the ground.

Paulo had gotten out of the car a lot more gracefully than Amber and he was now patting the bonnet and glaring at Amber. 'You hurt her feelings, you horrid person.' He turned to address the car. 'You're not a crap-mobile. Don't worry. I'll fix nasty old Amber.'

Li and Amber, standing next to each other on the grass, almost collapsed with laughter. Paulo looked their way and they whacked their hands over their mouths in an attempt to stop the giggles from escaping.

'Huh!' With a last pat for the car, Paulo walked after Alex and Hex, leaving Li and Amber to finish their hysterical laughing fit.

'Hello!' Alva was standing beside her car, parked underneath a copse of trees. Lilia hovered nearby. 'I'm so glad you could make it. Theo's gone to collect some more people. They live closer to here, about 20 minutes away, but their car is in for service so they have no way of getting here. He'll be back shortly.' Alva's green eyes sparkled. 'You need to understand a few things first. What we were at on Thursday is nothing like what we're about to do now. Do you understand what I'm getting at?'

Five heads nodded solemnly at her.

'Good. Lilia will explain more as I have a few bits and pieces to sort out before the rest of the team arrive.' Spinning on her heel, Alva walked away, disappearing into the shadows.

Lilia stepped forward. She had the same green eyes as her mother but Lilia's were missing the open and friendly glint. 'It's fairly simple.' Pointing behind her to where the trees were at their thickest, she said, 'We've got four vans parked behind there. After we break in to the lab which is over there-' she changed direction and pointed to her left, where the ground sloped gently down. Alpha Force hadn't noticed before but a white building was visible at the bottom, about 150 metres from where the six of them were standing- 'we destroy all the equipment, vaccines, anything you can get your hands on. The land slopes only this side; over where the vans are hidden it's level, so we get our drivers to drive down to the lab and we're getting every animal in that prison out. Put them in the cages in the van and hop in. We'll have someone else in your car and they'll take it back to your house for you.' Lilia looked at Alpha Force. 'You following?'

Five more nods.

'Great. That's all you need to know at the moment.' She smiled for the first time and gestured for them to follow her. 'Theo should be back by now and we'll be going in soon. Come meet our other members.'

Alpha Force obediently followed Lilia into the trees. On the opposite side everything was as Lilia had described. The ground was level and they had a clear run straight to the lab; four white vans sat facing the facility; a group of people stood about, chatting in low voices.

'Lilia! I was wondering where you were.' A tall, thin woman wearing black jeans and a black skivvy embraced Lilia.

'Hi De,' Lilia said, hugging the woman back. 'Really glad you could come.'

'Darling, I wouldn't miss this for the world.' De smiled as she saw the five people standing behind Lilia. 'You must be the new ones Alva was telling me about. Nice to meet you.' She shook hands with them before gesturing to the group of people. 'Listen up! We have five new recruits. Alex, Li, Amber, Hex and Paulo will be joining us on our little mission.' The gathering clapped politely and several people got up and came over to introduce themselves.

'Frank,' a short man with a beard and a balding head said grandly. 'Welcome aboard.' He pointed to an equally short woman in the crowd. 'My wife, Elsie. She'll probably come and say hi later, when this is all over. Gets a bit antsy every time we do something like this but she's fine afterwards.'

'I'm Carrie.' A pretty young woman with brown hair and hazel eyes smiled shyly. 'I'm fairly new as well. Don't worry though. Everyone here's really nice and we're doing a good job.'

'Welcome aboard! Name's Gerald or Gerry or G. Take your pick but I do prefer G. My daughter-' he patted the woman standing next to him on the head, even though she looked in her late twenties- 'Virginia, Ginny or Gin. Again take your pick but we've always called her Ginny. My wife is the shortish woman with grey hair next to Theo. She's only got one choice of names unfortunately. Carole. Didn't want us calling her Car or C or anything like that so it's just Carole I'm afraid.' G looked like he was going to keep talking but Alva clapped her hands once and everyone looked at her.

'Is everyone ready?'

'Yes!' Just about everyone in the group answered heartily, yet softly. Alpha Force joined in.

'You all know what it is you have to do?'

'Yes.'

'Our drivers for today will be Frank, G, Theo and Neil.' Neil turned out to be a plain looking, middle-aged man with brown hair and brown eyes. He stood by the second van with G and regarded Alva's comment with a slight nod. 'We need to get moving straight away.' She looked at Alpha Force and beckoned. They hurried over and waited patiently while Alva reassured Elsie.

'Are you completely certain this will go ok?' Elsie blinked rapidly and pushed her round glasses back to the top of her nose.

'Yes, dear,' soothed Alva. 'It will be fine. You go find Frank and ride in the van with him.'

Elsie tottered off to find her husband and Alva turned to Alpha Force.

'Right. Hex, Paulo and Alex. I want you three to be with the destruction team.' She gestured towards a group of seven people standing by the third van. 'Li and Amber can be part of the rescue team. Your job is to simply find and bring to the vans as many animals as possible. Understand?'

Alpha Force nodded, something they seemed to be doing a lot of lately.

'Do your best.' Spinning around to face her crew, Alva raised her arms and announced, 'It's time!'

The destruction and rescue team moved swiftly across the open ground. Hex was next to a man called Vince and he was slightly startled when Vince started to talk to him.

'This is the worst research facility in terms of security. They think that just 'cause their miles from anywhere they don't need security. No guards or alarms. No fences or dogs. Nothing. It's pathetic.' Vince spoke amazingly fast and Hex had a hard time following his rapid-fire speech.

'Er...' Fortunately for Hex, they were almost at the lab and he was saved from having to answer.

'Balaclavas.' Vince waved at a young guy who jumped and began passing out Balaclavas. Once everyone had donned the headgear, Vince grinned. 'Unleash hell!' he cried before proceeding to kick a door open and throw a rock through a window. Hex, Alex and Paulo were stunned for a moment before joining the rush streaming through the door.

'Go with the flow?' Alex murmured to his two friends.

'Go with the flow,' they answered.

By this time they had travelled down a long corridor and emerged in the main laboratory. It was fairly small but contained thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Oddly enough, there were no people in the room.

'It's a Saturday. They only have about five or ten people here on weekends and it's lunchtime so they'll all be in the staffroom upstairs. This lab is very low budget, despite all the fancy-smancy gear.' Vince gestured about him before grinning again, showing two rows of yellow teeth. 'Go for it, guys. Knock yourselves out but be ready to run when they hear us.'

The group dispersed, toppling racks of equipment to the ground and throwing glass test tubes against the walls. Tables and gurneys were toppled. Cables were ripped out of the wall. Someone started peeing in the corner of the room. Hex, Paulo and Alex joined in, trying to muster the enthusiasm. They had to act the part and looked thrilled to be helping. Really, though, they felt horrible. For some scientists what they were wrecking would be tie very lives. It felt wrong.

A clattering and a wave of angry voices alerted them to the fact that the staff had woken up and realised something was happening.

'Hurry Tim!' Vince's voice carried easily across the lab. The same slightly freaked out-looking guy that had handed out the Balaclavas nodded and ran to the centre of the room. A pile of paper had been dumped there and Tim swiftly pulled a box of matches from his pocket and lit the pile. With a _whoosh_ the flames took hold and the destruction team turned tail and ran. The pelted towards down the corridor and out into the sunlight.

'Round the back! They should have the critters out by now.' As one the group legged it round the corner of the building. They were just in time to catch sight of two girls loading the last cage into the van.

'Hurry. We're leaving,' one called.

Vince took charge, directing people to the four vans. 'Tim, Bruce, Jake- go in G's van. Hex, Kyle- hop in Frank's. Ben, Paulo, Alex- Theo's is parked down there. Me and Sam will go with Neil. Move it!' They scurried to do what they were told.

Frank's van was crowded. Cages were everywhere and Hex struggled to find a place to sit. The van started moving, making the task ten times more difficult.

'Hex?' Amber's voice seemed to come out of a small white bunny with red eyes.

'Ah... Where are you exactly?' He craned his head and caught sight of Amber and Li, huddled together behind the bunny's cage.

'Need a spot? We can squash over.' Li wriggled as close as she could get to the van side and Amber bunched up against her friend.

Looking behind him, Hex saw Kyle, a small lad, fit into a tiny gap right at the front of the van. His seating options were very limited. 'Sure. Thanks.' He staggered past cages and collapsed next to Amber. 'You guys ok?' he asked in a low voice.

'Yep. You?' Li said.

'Fine.' Hex's brow creased with worry. 'I just helped demolish an entire laboratory,' he said slowly. 'Those scientists could have been working for years on some of the things we wrecked.' His eyes widened. 'What if we destroyed something that could have saved someone's life?'

'Don't beat yourself up about it,' Amber said softly. She put her hand on Hex's arm. 'You had to do it.'

'But what if-'

'Just don't think about it,' Li cut in. 'Think about the four people who _have_ lost their lives, possibly because of this organisation. Think of their families and friends and what their going through. You might have destroyed something that could have saved a life, but someone definitely destroyed four lives on purpose. You didn't have a choice and whoever murdered those four people did.'

Amber gave Li a strange look. 'Why do you keep spouting out these words of wisdom?'

'Like I said, I have a gift. Speaking of words of wisdom, my offer still stands.'

'Shut up,' Amber hissed. Li bit her lip to stop herself laughing as Hex looked puzzled.

'What are you two on about?' he asked.

'Nothing,' Amber said quickly, shooting a death glare at Li. Luckily for her the van jolted and they all had to concentrate on staying seated. By the time the ride smoothed out, they were all silent, wondering where they were going and what would happen next.


	4. A Golden Opportunity

A frenzy of barking greeted the vans when they pulled up and hour and a half later.

'Holy crap,' murmured Li, but without much fear. 'Where the hell are we?'

'Come on out, kids!' Frank cracked open the van door and bright sunlight streamed inside, making the three friends squint involuntarily. 'Let's get these animals inside.'

Li was the first outside and she blinked with surprise. They were by a three story farmhouse with outbuildings dotted around the place and a small stable to the right. The barking came from four border collies in a spacious dog run beside the house. They howled and jumped at the wire, pink tongues hanging out.

'Hush darlings,' Alva cooed, going towards the run to calm her frantic dogs. They crowded on the opposite side, whimpering. 'There, there. You can come out once we have the cages in the house.'

For the next 15 minutes, everyone was busy transporting the cages from vans to a room inside. The dogs had fallen silent, lying quietly by the front of the run, following the movements outside their run with quick eyes. With the last dozen cages being carried to the house, Amber and Li headed over to the dogs. They barked with joy and clamoured for the girls' attention.

'Ain't they sweet?' Amber said with a smile.

'Lovely dogs, border collies.' Alva had appeared out of nowhere to stand beside Li and Amber. 'Give them loads of space, loads of stimulation, a job to do and their the best.'

'What are their names?' Li asked, giggling as one of the dogs licked her outstretched hand.

'The tricolour is Fly. She's my oldest dog and the sweetest little lady. Her daughter is the brown and white one licking your hand, Li. She's called Lexi. The black and white one at the back is Bailey and the other brown and white is Squirt, because she's so small.'

'Are they all related?' Amber said.

Alva shook her head. 'Only Fly and Lexi. I got them from the guy who used to live here. Fly was two and Lexi was only a month old. Irresponsible man; couldn't be bothered getting his dog desexed. He drowned the other five puppies when they were born because he couldn't afford to feed them. Lexi was the best looking one so her life was spared. Bailey I got from the animal shelter. He was bought as a wee puppy but got to six months and started to be too active for his owners. They lived in an apartment in the middle of London. Not the best place for a border collie. Squirt was due to be drowned by my neighbour. I went over there one day and he had this little girl in his hands, holding her over the pond. Poor little Squirt was the only puppy and he didn't think she'd end up being a good worker because she was so small. Turns out Squirt is the best herder I've got.' She smiled at her dogs with pride before opening the gate. They pushed out and licked their owner's legs. 'Go and have a run around.' The dogs shot off, barking happily.

'What's going to happen now?' asked Amber as they were walking over to the house.

Alva frowned. 'I'll have to get back to you on that one. I'm still deciding something.'

'Oh. Ok.' Li shared a puzzled and slightly nervous look with Amber behind Alva's back.

By this time they'd reached the house. Alva slipped her runners off and Amber and Li copied her. Pushing open the wooden door, a delicious smell greeted them.

'Wow,' Li breathed. 'What's smells so good?'

Chuckling, Alva replied, 'That would be Tricia, Theo's wife. She's a fantastic cook. She was going to come down and help today, but when I heard how many people were going to be there, she offered to stay here and cook us up a feast for when we got back.' They'd reached the kitchen and saw Tricia for the first time. She was a plump young woman, medium height with bright red hair that was knotted back in a bun at the nape of her neck. She looked up as the door swung shut.

'Alva? That you?' Her voice carried easily across the kitchen.

'Yes, honey. I've brought two of our helpers in. They were intrigued by the delicious smells coming form in her so I brought them in to meet the master.'

Wiping her hands on a tea towel, Tricia crossed the kitchen, a smile on her face and her hand extended in front of her. 'I'm Tricia,' she said. 'Nice to meet you...'

'Oh. I'm Amber and this is Li. 'Amber gestured to her friend next to her before shaking Tricia's hand. 'Your cooking smells awesome.'

'Thanks. I was training to be a chef but sort of abandoned that idea.'

'Why?' Li was wide eyed. 'Alva said you're a great cook.'

'Oh, I don't know. I felt so... claustrophobic in the kitchens. All these people, all this shouting... Did my head in. Then there were the little rules. I'm not too fond of rules at the best of times but the person who was making the rules was an absolute dickhead, 'scues my language.' Tricia had retreated back to the stove and was stirring a pot, her eyes wistful. 'I would have enjoyed it I suppose, but I couldn't handle another minute of being in there. I moved out of London, came to Bournemouth, met Theo, got married and here I am.' She laughed. 'That's just about my entire life. Sad I guess.'

Alva excused herself and left, leaving Amber, Tricia and Li to talk in the warm kitchen.

'So what about you two? What brings you to Bournemouth?' Tricia didn't know it but she had just set a challenge for her two guests.

'Well...' Amber started. 'I'm originally from Boston, but I moved to London a few years ago. I was trying to get work as a journalist but I couldn't find anything. I was at my wits end, trying to make a living but I was becoming more and more unsure about what I wanted out of life.'

Tricia was nodding. 'I know that feeling. It's so hard to find a balance, to find that perfect equal.'

'I discovered that. Then- I know this sounds absolutely horrid but it was a kind of blessing really- my gran died. She was super wealthy and she left a lot of her money to me. I rarely saw her because, well, let's just say she wasn't that happy with who her daughter, my mum, had married. So, because she wasn't too keen on my parents, she left the majority of her money to me. I chucked the journalism in the trash, packed up and moved to Bournemouth about a year ago. At the moment I'm living off the money gran left me, but I'll have to find something to do as a career fairly soon.'

'So how do you know Li?' Tricia stirred the contents of her pot again and added a sprinkle of salt.

'We met in London,' Li answered. 'I travelled a lot when I was growing up but had been born in London and started living there permanently a few years before I moved here. Amber had just arrived in London and had just been turned down by a small, local area paper. She was fuming and walked straight into me, making me drop my groceries. After she apologised and helped me pick up my food, we went for an apology drink as she called it, and became really good friends after that. When Amber said she was moving to Bournemouth, I was sad but had just landed a job at a bank- I'm a secretary- and I couldn't exactly pack up and leave, as appealing as Bournemouth sounded. I was sick and tired of London but had worked really hard for the job and couldn't throw it in and start again. About six months later I ended up getting fired for some trivial thing that I can't even remember and I wanted to start afresh. I came down here and I've been sharing a flat with Amber for the past six months.'

'So you like it here then?'

'It's great, but I'm out of work at the moment. I had a couple of little jobs but they only lasted a month or so.'

'Well, as much as I'd love to keep chatting with you two, dinner's ready,' Tricia announced.

'We'll give you a hand,' said Amber picking up two salad bowls and bumping the door open with her hip. Li grabbed the pot of pasta off the stove and strained it in the sink.

'Thanks,' Tricia called, but the door was already shut.

On her way down the hall, wondering why the person who had designed the house had put the kitchen at the front and the dining room at the back, Amber almost collided with Hex coming out of a room.

'AH!' she cried, grabbing onto the salad bowl desperately. Hex helped her steady it before putting a hand over his heart and closing his eyes.

'Christ. You gave me a heart attack. Thought you were Alva or Theo or someone.'

Amber frowned but then smiled. 'Ah... You weren't in a locked, out-of-bounds room by any chance were you?'

'Maybe.' Hex stuffed a small screwdriver into his pocket and took one of the salad bowls off Amber. 'So where did you and Li get to?'

Amber could hear the unspoken _I was_ _getting worried_ and smiled in her head, before realising Hex was waiting for an answer. 'Oh. We were with Tricia, Theo's wife. She asked us how Li and I knew each other and what we were doing in Bournemouth. Be ready 'cause she might ask you guys the same question.'

'Did you remember everything?' Hex started walking down the corridor and Amber hurried after him.

'Think so. Hope so.' She sounded a bit unsure of herself now. In the kitchen it had all rolled off her tongue so easily. She hadn't been Amber Middleton, she'd been Amber Henry. But now, thinking back over what she'd said, she wondered whether it was all correct.

Hex noticed Amber's expression and smiled reassuringly. 'Don't worry. I'm sure you did fine.'

'Did you find anything in the, ah, room?'

'Didn't have a proper chance to look. Told Neil I was going to the toilet and it took me ten minutes just to find Alva's office and get the door unlocked. I was going to head back when you ran into me.'

'Getting a bit rusty with your lock picking?' Amber teased.

'No,' Hex replied indignantly, but he mentally reminded himself to practise more often.

They'd reached the dining room and Amber looked about her in amazement. There were about 30 people sitting at a long table. Through the French doors at the back of the room, Amber could see rolling green hills and white dots of sheep. She found herself staring critically at the assembled people, wondering which ones were involved with _Equal Rights_ and if any of them were involved with the murders of the four company members.

Tricia and Li were serving pasta and vegetable Bolognese to the people at the table. Amber and Hex dumped their salad bowls at opposite ends of the table and looked for an empty seat. Hex tapped the back of her hand and gestured to the far end of the table.

'There's a spare seat up there. That's where I was sitting,' he said.

'Right.' They moved to that end of the table, taking a bowl of pasta each from Tricia.

'Hi, Hex. I was about to come looking for you,' Neil wheezed. He blinked at Amber a few times. 'Who are you?'

'Amber. I'm one of the newbies,' Amber said.

'Oh.' He frowned and muttered something under his breath before shrugging and beginning to eat his food.

_Ok_, Amber mouthed at Hex. He casually put a finger up horizontally next to his temple and spun it round. Amber's shoulder's jiggled with silent laughter but she stopped when Neil looked up at her.

'Nice pasta?' she asked, attempting casual conversation.

Neil grunted.

'Good.' Amber stabbed into her pasta with her fork and raised it to her mouth. She stopped halfway, remembering her conversation turn argument with Li. Groaning silently, Amber looked up and saw Li looking straight at her, a smirk on her face. The petite girl blinked angelically at Amber, her cheeks bulging with the need to laugh. Some of the other people at the table regarded Li strangely, as she took deep breaths and fought down the urge to giggle hysterically. Paulo and Alex, seated either side of Li, looked like they wanted to run away.

Hex was looking past Amber with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

'What on earth...?' he muttered. He raised his voice slightly and faced Amber. 'Care to shed some light?'

'Not really. It's nothing. Li's just being Li.' Amber gave a strained smiled and started eating her food, deliberately swivelling her chair so she didn't have to look at Li's face. _She's in soooooo much trouble_, Amber thought. _Just wait 'til I get my hands on her..._

Dinner passed without incidence as did dessert. Amber was starting to feel drowsy, although it was still early. She stifled a yawn and tried to look interested as Neil yabbered on about his latest skin rash and how disrespectful the youth of today was.

'That's very interesting, Neil,' she heard Hex murmur. He looked like he was fighting the urge to collapse on the table top as well. Just when she thought she'd die of boredom, Alva stood up. Immediately all conversation about the table ceased.

'I'd just like to congratulate Amber, Hex, Li, Paulo and Alex on their work today. You were calm under pressure, you didn't back out and you were an invaluable part of the team. Well done.' Alva started clapping and a smattering of applause broke out. When the clapping had stopped, Alva sat down, saying, 'Theo? You may do the honours.'

Theo stood up. 'Well guys. As my mother said just a moment ago, you were all fantastic today. On behalf of my mother and her organisation, I'd like to extend an exclusive opportunity to the five of you. We will set an initiation test and, if you pass- which I'm sure you all will- you will an official part of our organisation. What we did today was just a small sample of what our organisation does. If you join, you will be part of one of the most productive rights groups in the country. What do you say? Would you like a chance to be part of this?' Theo stretched his hands to indicate the people in the room.

'Wow,' Alex said. 'This is amazing. I- I don't know what to say.'

'Say yes,' Theo enthused. 'This is a fantastic opportunity.' He turned to look at Li and then at Amber. 'I know for a fact that you two girls are out of work at the moment. You'll be paid for the work you do with us and, as you're unemployed, you can do more than some of our other members.'

'What about us?' Paulo said. 'Alex, Hex and I don't have jobs at the moment either.'

'The same goes for you three as well.' Theo grinned at them, his blue eyes lighting up. 'So whadda ya say?'

'We're in,' Amber said, jerking a thumb at Hex.

'Same for us,' Paulo said as Alex and Li nodded.

Theo looked pleased. 'I'm _so_ glad. If you're not too tired, perhaps you could do the initiation tonight?' He looked at Alva who paused and then nodded.

'I have just the thing,' she said. 'You can do it all together. It won't be especially dangerous. Are you up for it tonight?'

Alpha Force didn't need to discuss it. Their goal was to infiltrate _Equal Rights_ and the opportunity was being handed to them on a silver platter. And so soon! Harry was going to be wrapped. 'We're up for it,' they said in unison.

'Excellent. We'll leave everyone to finish their tea and you five can join me in my office.' Pushing her chair back, Alva clasped her hands together. 'We haven't got a moment to lose.'


	5. Suspicious Circumstances

Alva's office was spacious. Towards the back of the room was a huge, mahogany desk with a swivel chair behind it. A laptop sat open on the desk next to a green lamp. Two potted plants either side of the door displayed their fronds proudly. The whole room screamed _luxury work space_.

'So,' Alva said as she sat down behind her desk, settling herself comfortably on the chair. 'The task I have for you to do is fairly simple; in fact it's a bit like what you guys did today. On the outskirts of town, about half an hour from here, there is a house belonging to a Mr Kevin Edwards. He has connections with a company based in the Middle East that is putting harmful chemicals into the water systems, evicting poor villagers from their homes and endangering the lives of everyone and everything in the immediate area. They say it's unintentional, but they have a choice in the way they make their products.' Smiling at the looks on her new recruits' faces Alva added, 'Don't look so horrified. We don't harm anyone. Never have and never will.'

Alpha Force shared a look.

'What you will be required to do is simply sneak in and partake in a small amount of vandalism. I'll provide all your equipment but how you get in and out and what you destroy is up to you.'

'When do we leave?' Hex asked, hoping he'd have time to phone Harry with an update.

'Oh...' Looking at her watch, Alva frowned thoughtfully. 'About 11. Theo will drive you and wait until you're done.' She stood up and gestured to the door. 'It's only six so you could grab a couple hours sleep if you want. I noticed a couple of you struggling to stay awake.'

Amber smiled uneasily. 'Ah... well...'

'Relax,' chuckled Alva. 'If I had to listen to Neil going on and on about his latest ailment, I'd have fallen asleep. He's a bloody hypochondriac.'

They were walking down the corridor and Alva gestured right to an almost hidden flight of stairs. Up there you'll find bedrooms. Lilia will be sent up later with clothes and your equipment. Sleep well.' She swept off down the hallway, back to the dining room.

'This is it!' Amber squealed as they climbed the staircase.

'Little tip, Amber,' Paulo said holding his head. 'No squealing, especially in confined spaces.'

'How about she just doesn't make a sound. Ever,' Hex put in.

'Ha ha. You're hilarious,' replied Amber sarcastically, going to push open the door of the first bedroom. She walked in the room and half turned, lowering her voice. 'Oh. Who's ringing Harry?'

'I'll do it.' Hex was already pulling put his phone. 'You guys get some sleep.'

The hallway was soon empty and Hex closed the door on his own room. He blinked at the furnishings; a huge, four-poster bed with a white canopy, a desk and chair in the far corner, a plasma TV mounted on the wall... Hex was baffled as to how Alva could afford all her bits and pieces. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Hex grabbed his second phone card from the hidden compartment in the bottom of his shoe and swapped it over with his original card. Within minutes of entering the room, Hex had the phone pressed to his ear, listening to the dial tone and waiting for Harry to pick up.

'Hex. What have you got for me?' Harry said suddenly, startling Hex out of his boredom.

'It's dynamite,' Hex answered. He couldn't help smiling as he said it, remembering back, years ago, to one of Alpha Force's missions. He'd said the exact same thing to Li.

'Well?'

'We have a chance to be fully fledged members of _Equal Rights_. If we pass an initiation test tonight, Alva said we can join.'

'Well done!' Harry sounded like a dad who had just heard about his son's first day at school. 'That's a huge achievement. The five of you have very promising careers ahead of you, I can tell.' There was a slight pause and the sound of paper being rustled. 'What time?'

'We're leaving about 11 tonight. Theo's driving us. Not sure in what though. Might be a white van though because there's five of us plus him.'

'White... van,' Harry said, sounding like he was writing it down. '11... tonight.' He switched to normal speaking tempo. 'Where exactly are you going?'

'Not sure on the exact location but it's to a guy called Kevin Edwards. He's with _One Way Forward_ by the sound of it.' Hex fiddled with the frills on the bedspread and grimaced. What was so appealing about frills? They were a waste of material.

'Yep. Mr Edwards is one of the company managers. Alva's not getting you guys to hurt him, is she?'

'No,' Hex replied quickly. 'This is the weird bit. She sounded very opposed to the things _One Way Forward_ are doing but she was adamant that _Equal Rights_ has never hurt anyone and they never will. It's almost like she doesn't know about the four murders.'

'So what does she want you to do?'

'Vandalise the place.'

'That's all?' Harry said, sounding surprised.

'Apparently.'

'Well, be careful. I'll send Tanya and another officer down to keep an eye out but you should be able to handle it. Do what Alva expects you to do and do it convincingly but don't let it get out of hand.'

'Righto. I'll call again tomorrow and let you know what happens next.' Hex hung up, feeling weird. Something wasn't right. Alva was the supreme leader of _Equal Rights_. Anything that anyone in her organisation did or was planning on doing, she'd know about. Wouldn't she? Hex rubbed his forehead, feeling confused. Maybe the deaths of Robert Hilders, Gerald First, Iola Martin and Andrea Darby had nothing to do with _Equal Rights_. Maybe they were looking in the wrong place. But Alva seemed angry about _One Way Forward_ and what they were doing in the Middle East. Surely that counted as a motive to kill people working with the company.

Hex was in such deep thought that he didn't notice his phone vibrating in his hand. He answered it, knowing immediately who it was. Harry was the only one with this phone number, but what he wanted to say was a puzzle.

'I'm so slack,' sighed Harry immediately.

'Huh?' Hex felt a headache coming on and he really wanted to sleep.

'I had some very important news to tell you and it completely slipped my mind. We've found out how the four victims were murdered.'

Really?' Disgusting, yes, but Hex couldn't help feeling utterly fascinated. The method used to kill the four company members could also provide a bit more light on who they were dealing with. And what they were capable of.

'It's a bit hazy but there was a witness from the last attack- the one on Andrea Darby a few days ago- who came out of sort of coma a few hours ago. Unfortunately she died almost straight after she regained consciousness, but she did manage to tell us a few important factors that could help.' Rustling paper. 'Apparently Andrea received a parcel, delivered by a plain white car, half an hour before she was blown up.'

'Blown up?' Hex yelped. 'She was blown up?'

'Yep. The person who delivered the parcel was smallish but our witness couldn't tell whether they were male or female. Wearing all white with a white cap.' More rustling paper. 'Um... No index number for the car unfortunately. Our witness didn't have the best eyesight which could also be why she couldn't give a better description of the courier.'

Hex was mentally running through the list of possible people from _Equal Rights_ who would fit the hazy description but the list was far too long. Almost half of the organisation were small in size. 'Doesn't give us much to go on, does it? A suspicious package, delivered half an hour before the house gets blown off it's foundations isn't much. Do you think the bomb was in the package?'

'It's likely, but it could also be a pure coincidence. No one saw the other three victims before they died, remember.' Harry sighed. 'Be careful. If _Equal Rights_ are involved with this, there's no telling what they'll do if they find out who you guys are working for.'

'Keep me posted.' Hex hung up and flopped backwards onto the bed. So much to think about and so many consequences if they were wrong. Hex groaned as he looked at his watch. In a few hours they were going to breaking into someone's house and trashing the joint. To many young adults, that would sound like a dream come true, but to Hex it spelt disaster with a capital "D". And an exclamation mark.

* * *

'Meeting,' Hex hissed in Li's ear.

'What!' Li jerked upright, throwing the covers off. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them and glaring at the four faces grinning at her. 'Idiots,' she muttered before reluctantly swinging her legs out of the bed.

'We have a meeting, Li,' Amber said.

'And that makes it fine to wake me up the way you guys did?' Rubbing her eyes with the back of one hand, Li reached for her watch on the bedside table.

'Duh.' Amber couldn't help grinning. _Serves her right_.

'It's only 10 o'clock,' Li growled.

'We have a meeting.' Hex wasn't smiling, his green eyes serious. 'I need to tell you guys something.'

'What? Is it bad? Is it something Harry told you? Are we being pulled out? Did-' Amber was cut of as Alex clamped a hand over her mouth.

'Go ahead, Hex,' he said, letting Amber struggle free.

'Yuck,' she mumbled, before settling down on Li's bed.

'Right. First of all, Tanya and another officer will be watching Kevin Edwards' place while we are inside. They'll make sure that nothing goes wrong and we aren't being set up. If something goes pear shaped then we can get out ASAP.

'Harry said that they believe Andrea Darby was blown up. A package arrived at her place, delivered by an unidentifiable courier dressed all in white and driving a white car, half an hour before her house was blown up. Harry said it could be a coincidence but I think otherwise.'

'So you think _Equal Rights_, Alva, has something to do with the murders?' Paulo asked.

'No. I just said it wasn't a coincidence.' Hex brought out his palmtop that had been tucked in a bag and not secured, as usual, to his belt. 'This is a clip of CCTV footage from outside Andrea's house.' Hex spun the palmtop around and hit play. 'We can see the car but not the index number.'

'Where?' Li demanded. 'I can't see any car.'

'Patience,' Alex murmured. 'It's coming.' Sure enough, a white car appeared suddenly from the bottom of the screen and pulled up in front of number 16: Andrea Darby's house. A figure dressed in white got out of the car and walked up to Andrea's front door. After putting the package on the ground, the person turned and walked back to the car. They got in the passenger side and the car pulled out, disappearing in the direction it came. Hex hit stop and closed the palmtop.

'No one ask how I actually got that,' he said as Amber opened her mouth. 'Just tell me some things you noticed.'

'The person got out of the passenger side,' Paulo said.

'Right!' Hex pointed a finger at Paulo and nodded. 'What does that mean?'

'That they weren't alone in the car,' Li added.

'Exactly. What else?' Hex glanced at his friends.

'The person who put the parcel on Andrea's doorstep is female,' Amber said.

Hex was the only one who didn't look surprised. 'Correct. Anything else?'

'Hang on,' Li spluttered. 'How on earth can you tell that the person is female?'

Amber answered. 'The cut of the clothes,' she said. 'Also how she walks and runs at the end. And the t-shirt was kind of... tightish so you definitely tell.'

'Oh.' Li looked at Amber. 'Quite observant, aren't you?' Amber shrugged.

'So we know that our courier is a small female and that she wasn't alone in the car.' Alex shook his head. 'That isn't much.'

'No, it's not,' Hex packed his palmtop away. 'But it's more than we knew before watching that footage. Remember: knowledge is power.'

'Should you call Harry?' Alex asked Hex.

'Already done.'

'So you didn't really need us to help you make observations then?' Li sounded annoyed.

'Maybe. I just didn't want to waste any time and I also wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed anything important.' Hex shrugged. 'Do I need to apologise?'

'Don't worry about it,' Li sighed. 'But you need to remember that we're a team still, Hex.'

He nodded. 'I remember. Don't worry.'

Li was about to kick her friends out of her room so she could get ready, when she thought over what hex had said. 'Hang on.'

'What?' Amber regarded Li's face with curiosity.

'Hex. You said that you didn't think Alva or _Equal Rights_ were involved in this. Why?'

'Simple really,' Hex grinned. 'I don't know whether my theory is right or not but it makes sense. Alva knows everyone in _Equal Rights_. She organises everything they do, every protest or riot or break-in. She's in the driver's seat all the time. When she was talking to us before, it was like she didn't even know that four members of the company she hates have been killed. It'd be very hard to fake not knowing something that big.'

'So you think _Equal Rights _isn't involved.' Paulo raised an eyebrow.

'Not as a whole. There could be someone _from_ here that's masterminding it all, but if that's the case, Alva definitely doesn't know about it.'

'We need to get downstairs,' Amber said suddenly, looking at her watch with alarm. 'Now.'

'I'm not ready,' Li whined, indicating the pile of clean clothes Alva left her.

'Hurry up then. Meet you out the front in three minutes.' Li's team mates were already halfway down the hall.

'Meanies,' muttered Li, but she was smiling. Finally. Some action.


	6. Initiation

'This is so freaky.' Amber glanced about her nervously, but the night was so dark her darting eyes saw little.

'It'll be fine,' Hex murmured. He gave Amber's hand a squeeze before following after Alex towards the Edwards' house. It was a huge mansion, set at the front of acres of sprawling green hills. A creek babbled quietly to their left and a few raindrops splattered softly but apart from that the countryside was quiet. Amber looked ahead of her, at the Edwards' house and felt sick. She was about to help vandalise an innocent man's house and, no matter how many times she told herself that it was for the good of the mission, Amber still felt that what she was about to do was _very_ low on the moral scale.

'Ready?' Alex hissed. They had reached the side of the house. A carport roof would allow them access to a small window on the second floor of the house. From there they would quietly wreck everything they could before coming out the same way. It was a very loose plan and had a million ways it could go horribly wrong, but Alpha Force had no choice.

'Let's just hurry up and get it over with.' Hex climbed on top of a wheelie bin and from there pulled himself up onto the carport roof. Li came up next and Hex pulled her onto the roof. Paulo, Amber and Alex followed quickly and within minutes of arriving at the house, they were removing the flyscreen from the window and sliding through.

'Ok,' Li whispered. 'Bedrooms will most likely be on this floor so be _very_ quiet.' Her friends nodded, taking cans of spray paint and permanent markers out of Paulo's backpack.

'This sucks,' Amber groaned softly. 'I can't believe we're doing this.'

'We haven't got a choice,' Alex answered, creeping down the hall to the flight of stairs alongside Amber. 'Don't think about it.' He paused at the start of the stairs and uncapped his can of paint. Shrugging and muttering under his breath, Alex wrote _stop the suffering _on the white wall. Amber regarded his graffiti with her hands on her hips and a raised eyebrow.

'Imaginative,' she said. Alex rolled his eyes and started down the stairs.

For ten minutes the five of them sprayed and wrote on every surface they could find. Soon, the entire first floor was covered in spots of red paint and black ink. It looked a mess.

'We should go,' Li announced, surveying her latest handiwork: a huge flame that leapt up the staircase.

'Yep,' Hex answered, already moving past Li, up the stairs, avoiding the still wet paint as best he could. 'We've done enough.'

Walking along the second floor hallway, Paulo felt uneasy. Something was going to go wrong. He could feel it.

'Hurry,' he hissed, nudging Li in the back.

'I'm hurrying,' grumbled Li, giving him a strange look.

'We need to-' Paulo had been looking over his shoulder and stopped suddenly, drawing in a sharp intake of breath. Li heard him and spun around, dreading what Paulo had seen. She peeked around the big Argentinean and stifled a groan. Standing just five metres behind them, clutching a tatty looking bear and wearing a Barbie nightgown was a young girl. She blinked at them in the dim moonlight, brown eyes huge.

'Um...' Li started to back away, grabbing Paulo's t-shirt and pulling him with her. Amber, Hex and Alex were already on the roof, watching nervously as Li and Paulo moved slowly away from the little girl.

'It's ok, sweetie,' they heard Li say quietly. 'No, no, no. Don't cry. Please...'

Too late. The little girl, confronted by five strange looking beings outside the entrance to her room, took a huge breath and let out a piercing scream.

'GO!' Li shrieked, matching the girl in volume. 'Move it!' She dove head first through the window, landing in a heap at Alex's feet. He helped her up and pulled her out of the way as Paulo crashed onto the roof of the carport.

They scrambled across the roof, hearing the terrified screams of the little girl echoing behind them and the worried voices of her parents. Lights flickered on in the hallway as Alpha Force hit the ground running and disappeared into the night.

'So much for subtle,' Amber panted as they dashed to where Theo had parked the van.

'That poor little kid,' Li said. 'She must have been terrified.'

'We can't worry about her now,' pointed out Hex as he slid down a bank and caught sight of Theo's car. 'The mission beckons.'

* * *

Harry looked up as his office door opened. It was in the very early hours of the morning and Harry felt like he hadn't slept in weeks. Despite his overwhelming urge to go home and crash, Harry had stayed at the Headquarters, waiting for Tanya to get back from her assignment.

'Hi!' Tanya bustled in, green eyes sparkling despite the early hour.

'How did it go?' Eagerness overcame tiredness and Harry looked expectantly at his officer.

Tanya frowned thoughtfully and collapsed into a chair. 'Well... It started out great, but they must have been seen by someone because, all of a sudden, this loud-as-heck scream comes from the house. Made me drop my coffee.'

'It wasn't one of our officers that screamed, was it?'

'No. I was worried but Dave looked through the binoculars and saw all five of the high-tailing it out to where they were dropped off.' Tanya's grin faded and she stifled yawn. Harry smiled at her.

'Well done, Tanya. Go home and get some rest.'

'Yeah,' Tanya murmured as she walked out of the room. 'That sounds like an awesome plan.'

* * *

Alva wrung her hands nervously as Theo's van pulled up. She was becoming really fond of the five new recruits and hoped that they had succeeded in her little challenge.

'Hey mum!' Theo called, a broad grin on his face as he climbed out of the driver's seat. 'Come and congratulate your new members.'

Five very tired and wet people staggered from the van. Alva bounded up to Alpha Force, enveloping them in a huge hug.

'This is fantastic!' she laughed. 'You guys will do _so_ well in our organisation.'

'Thanks, Alva,' Amber said.

'Yeah. Thanks,' her friends echoed.

'I liked you kids the moment I met you. Welcome to _Equal Rights_.' Alva put her one arm each around Hex and Li's shoulders and started towards the house. 'Now. You're welcome to stay here as long as you like. There will always be a spot here for each and every one of you.'

Li felt a pang of guilt as Alva opened the front door and ushered them inside. Alva was such a lovely woman; she was caring and kind and... They were spying on her. Li reminded herself that Alva could have organised to have four people blown up, but it didn't make her feel less terrible. The trouble was that she thought Hex's theory was right; she was sure that Alva had nothing to do with the four company members' deaths, but all the evidence pointed to Alva and Li had a job to do. _This sucks_, Li thought. _This really sucks_.

'Now,' announced Alva, 'know you're all tired and wet, but I want to explain a few things to you. _Equal Rights_ is an environmental, animal and human rights group. We protest mainly but, as you saw the yesterday, we will also do a small bit of vandalism and breaking and entering. We have never harmed anyone; if we did hurt or kill people it would contradict what we believe in, wouldn't it?'

Alpha Force nodded, storing up the information to tell Harry later.

'We fight for what we believe in and we want to change the world. I'm so glad you five will be a part of this. You're all bright and passionate about our causes... I'll be glad to have you all on my side.' Alva smiled brightly and sincerely at her new recruits.

'We won't let you down, Alva,' Hex said, filling the silence. He was the best at keeping his face unreadable and his team mates sighed silently in relief.

'I will explain more tomorrow and then you guys can go back to your flats if you like.' Turning to speak to Hex, Alva added,' Your car is in the garage behind the house. Neil filled it up for you and checked everything was working.'

'If I don't see him, can you thank him for me,' Hex answered as he stood up with his friends.

'Of course,' Alva smiled. 'You guys get some rest. The rooms you were all in before are still available. You remember the way?'

'Yep,' Amber called as they went through the door. 'Thanks again!'

As soon as she was on the second floor, outside her room, Amber groaned. 'Does any else feel terrible about deceiving Alva like this?'

'Yes,' Li sighed. 'She isn't involved. I know she isn't.'

'You don't know that,' Alex said.

Paulo nodded his agreement. 'She might be really good at acting.'

'But why hide the truth from us?' Amber hissed. 'We're members now. If she was involved in the bomb attacks, surely we would know. She might have wanted our help.'

'Maybe Alva still isn't completely sure she can trust us.' Alex shrugged his shoulders. 'We can't just assume that she isn't involved because she hasn't told us she is.'

'I agree with Amber and Li,' Hex said suddenly. He had been his usual quiet self, watching his friends argue. 'Alva's not in on the bomb attacks. Someone from _Equal Rights_ might be organising it all, but it's not Alva.'

'You don't know that for certain.' Alex was sounding frustrated. 'Don't tell Harry anything we don't have proof for.'

'How do we get proof, Alex?' Hex grated, glaring at his friend. 'Tell me how. We can't just walk up to Alva and casually say "Hey! Blown anyone up lately?". We not only blow our cover but we also don't get any evidence. We can't be certain anyone here is telling the truth unless we get _solid_ evidence. Tape recordings, video recordings... A confession isn't enough. We need to go with our gut feeling and mine is saying to trust Alva. It's saying that we focus on someone else in here and stop wasting our time. Every minute we don't find out who did this means another person is a minute closer to being blown to smithereens. We need to find who's doing this, before more people get hurt.' Hex shook his head slightly and spun on his heel, disappearing down the hallway and into his room.

Hex's monologue and exit left the four remaining friends lost for words. They went to their respective rooms quietly, each lost in their thoughts. A few minutes after, Amber slipped out of her room and walked quietly down the corridor to Hex's. She knocked softly on the door, expecting to be ignored or told to go away.

'Come in.' Hex's voice sounded borderline friendly and Amber felt surprised. She pushed the door open and saw Hex sitting on his bed, his phone in his hand.

'You ok?' she asked softly, closing the door behind her.

Hex looked up, seeming to just realise Amber was actually standing in front of him. 'Huh? Oh... Yeah. I'm fine.' He looked back at the phone again, twisting it around in his fingers.

'Did you call Harry, then?' Amber asked as she sat down next to Hex.

'Not yet.' Sighing Hex shook his head. 'I don't know what I should do. Paulo and Alex think that Alva's still our prime suspect and if I phone Harry and tell him what I think... We're a team and we should all make decisions together. We should respect what each others' opinions and...' He sighed again. 'If I tell Harry that we're wasting our time with Alva, I'm ignoring both of those two points.'

Amber was silent for a moment, staring at the phone in Hex's hand. 'Call him,' she said suddenly.

Hex looked at her in surprise. 'What?'

'Call him. Tell him what you think, explain what Alex and Paulo think and ask him what we should do.'

'Are you sure?' Hex unlocked the phone and hovered his thumb over the speed dial key.

'Positive. Trust me.' Amber pushed Hex's thumb down and waited while the number dialled.

Hex clamped the phone to his ear and waited for Harry to pick up. 'Hello?'

'Hex?' Harry sounded tired and slightly worried.

'The one and only. I have to tell you something about the mission.'

Amber stood up and walked out of the room, feeling unsure as to whether what she had just done was right or not. What would Alex and Paulo think? They'd gone behind their backs and told Harry without consulting with the rest of the team. Whatever Harry's decision was, it was going to bite her in the bum when the others found out. She'd just made things _way_ more complicated.


	7. Callie Winters

Callie Winters couldn't help smiling as she set the table. Her life couldn't have been more perfect. As she arranged the cutlery and plates, Callie hummed a tune under her breath. Behind her, in the kitchen, a timer buzzed, demanding that someone take care of the roast in the oven. Callie skipped back to the kitchen, pulling a pair of oven mitts off their hook on the wall as she entered the kitchen.

The fragrant smell of roast lamb filled the house. Two hungry children hurried into the kitchen, their eyes huge as they looked at their mother.

'Is dinner ready?' the youngest asked. Her blonde hair was tied in two pigtails and she swished her skirt as she stared at the food.

Callie chuckled and bent down to smooth her daughter's shirt. 'It's coming, Eva,' she reassured. The second child, a boy a couple of years older than Eva, tugged at his mother's apron.

'When's Daddy going to be home?' he asked in a high voice, blue eyes blinking slowly.

The sound of the door opening saved Callie from having to answer.

'Callie? Kids?' A tall, well-built man dressed in a suit and tie and carrying a black briefcase, wandered into the dining room. Eva and her brother caught sight of him and ran, squealing with joy, to their dad. He laughed and picked them up, one at a time, and hugged them tightly. Callie put down the knife and walked across to embrace her husband.

'Hi, sweetie,' he murmured. 'How was your day?'

Callie stepped back and smiled. 'Good. How was your's?'

'Same old same old.' He shrugged his jacket off and followed Callie into the kitchen.

'Nick?' Callie called from the walk-in pantry. 'A parcel and a letter came for you today. They're on the bench.'

'Thanks.' Nick turned around and frowned thoughtfully, looking for the mentioned mail.

'Can you see it?'

'Ah...' Nick scooped up three exercise books, two binders and finally found his package and letter. 'Yep. Found 'em.'

Callie emerged from the pantry carrying salt and pepper. 'The kids are hungry so can you open them at the table?' Nick nodded and picked up the plate of lamb and a dish of vegetables, his mail tucked under one arm.

'Eva? Jarred? Dinner's ready.' Entering the dining room, Callie realised that she could have saved her breath. Her two children where sitting promptly at the table, grins on their faces and hands folded neatly in their laps.

'We've been waiting for _ages_, Mummy,' Jared sighed.

'Sorry, guys,' Nick apologised, putting the meat and vegies down in the centre of the table. 'Work's been a bit hectic lately.' Callie shot her husband a warning look and quickly dished out the food. _One Way Forward,_ the company Nick was with and she used to be part of, had been receiving some bad publicity lately, as well as threats. Callie didn't want her children hearing about any of it.

For five minutes there was silence, broken only by the occasional clank of cutlery and plate, as the Winters ate. Finished with his meal, Nick turned his attention to the letter and parcel.

'The letter was in the mail box when I got back from the shops,' Callie explained. 'The parcel was left outside the front door about 15 minutes ago. I was dusting in the lounge room when this white car pulled up and this woman got out. Hard to see much of her because she was wearing a cap, but she had blonde hair and green eyes. Slightly built: skinny and short.'

Nick, in the process of pulling the letter from its envelope, gave his wife a strange look. 'Why are you telling me what she looked like?'

Feeling sheepish, Callie shrugged and said, 'I don't know. She seemed a bit... odd?' She shrugged again and went back to eating.

Nick quickly read the letter, face turning slightly white. He silently passed it to his wife. Callie, frowning, took it and read:

**YOU'VE BEEN WARNED**

**WE DON'T MAKE IDLE THREATS**

**TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SUFFERING THAT YOU CAUSE**

**BEWARE...**

**OBJECTS OF INNOCENCE CAN BRING THE MOST SUFFERING**

Callie raised an eyebrow and crumpled the paper into a ball, dropping it unceremoniously onto the table. 'Don't take any notice of it, Nick,' she said, sounding far calmer than she felt. How many weeks had it been since the last letter? One? Two? They, whoever _they_ were, had obviously been disappointed by Nick's lack of resignation. Nick always had been stubborn; he had chucked the last letter into the fireplace, saying 'What can they do?' Despite three- no four, Callie reminded herself, remembering Andrea Darby- of Nick's colleagues had lost their lives, Nick refused to quit. They'd had countless arguments over the past few weeks, Callie trying desperately to get him to think of her and their children. But he hadn't listened, calling the threats hollow and disregarding them. Callie copied her husband now, putting on a brave face and looking at the crumpled letter with contempt.

'What can they do, huh?' Nick was saying as Callie was dragged back to the present. He'd helped himself to more meat and gravy and was almost done. Their children had disappeared into the lounge room; Callie could hear their giggles as they lost themselves in one of their many games.

'What's in the parcel?' Callie asked, getting up to clear the dishes.

Nick shrugged and pulled the brown paper package towards him. It was about the size of a shoe box with thick black marker scribbling out Nick's name and address on the front. There wasn't a return address on the box, but that didn't strike either Nick or Callie as odd.

Callie dumped the plates in the sink and tarted to run the water. She could hear Nick tearing at the paper, followed by 'What the hell?'

'What?' Callie, curiosity winning out, appeared in the kitchen doorway drying her hands on a tea towel. She blinked in surprise at the contents of the package. A small, fuzzy teddy bear with a pink bow sat in front of Nick. The teddy had its arms reaching forwards, wanting to be cuddled. Nick looked like he was about to say something, when singing floated out of the teddy.

_If you go out in the woods today,_

_You're sure of a big surprise._

_If you go out in the woods today,_

_You'd better go in disguise._

_For every bear that ever there was,_

_Is gathered there for certain because,_

_Today's the day the teddy bears_

_Have their picnic._

There was a split second of silence before Callie and Nick's world exploded. Nick gave a scream that was cut of abruptly. It sounded brutal and final. Walls and the roof crashed around them. Callie felt no pain as she lay in the rubble that used to be their house. She didn't even seem to be aware of the situation she was in. As she drifted towards her death, she heard noises, but that was all they were. Noises. She couldn't comprehend anything. Jarred was screaming, a thin, high wail that continued on and on. Her son's wail turned into a siren as an ambulance sped closer to the house. Eva screamed, a scream of pure terror and pain. The little girl had no idea what had just happened to her, or that she only had minutes to live. She wanted her mum and dad to hug her and tell her it was ok. Callie's brain faintly registered her children's cries. She wanted to go to them, but found it was impossible. Her arms and legs wouldn't work. Opening her mouth to cry out, she found she couldn't. Blood gurgled from her open mouth and mixed with powered plasterboard, forming a gluggy red paste. Callie's eyes widened and she started to panic. What had happened? What was going on? Bright spots started to swim in front of her and Callie shook her head to try and clear them. A sharp pain in her skull made Callie stop. The lights were still there, growing thicker. With one last, desperate sob, Callie slipped into eternal darkness.


	8. A New Suspect

Harry sighed and stared sadly at the laptop screen. A BBC News bulletin flashed horrific images of the latest attack on _One Way Forward_ employees. Harry turned the sound up and sat back to listen.

_'...yet more victims in the protests against _One Way Forward_. Callie and Nick Winters, along with their two children Jarred, aged five, and Eva, aged four, have been the latest casualties in the bloody and violent attacks. Nick Winters was a current manager at _One Way Forward_ and Callie Winters resigned six years ago from her position as planning director. Although it is believed that all four of the victims have perished, rescuers will continue to search late into the night. Any witnesses for this attack or any of the previous ones are urged to come forward. Police are continuing their investigations and advise all members of _One Way Forward_ to be vigilant and cautious. Sandy Haskot, BBC News.'_

'Hello?' Tanya bumped open the office door with her hip and peered in at her boss. 'Mind if I come in?'

'Huh?' Harry mumbled, barely glancing up. 'Oh. Right. No. Come on in.'

Tanya shut the door and walked across to Harry, perching on a chair opposite him. 'Another one. It's awful, isn't it?'

Harry nodded and looked at Tanya properly. She had bags under her eyes and a purple bruise spreading across one cheekbone. 'What the hell happened to you?' he spluttered, pointing at Tanya's face.

Almost self-consciously, Tanya brushed her fingertips over the bruise and tried to hide her wince. 'It's nothing. I whacked my face on the cupboard door.' She smiled nervously. 'How are your little officers going?'

Harry was surprised by the sudden change of subject and a little suspicious, but he shrugged it off. 'Ok. Hex called last night and said they've got a bit of friction at the moment. He, Li and Amber think Alva's clean but Paulo and Alex aren't so sure.'

Tanya nodded. 'Yeah. That was bound to happen. I've been in a situation like that before and it didn't end well. But I'm sure they'll be fine,' Tanya added hurriedly after seeing the look of alarm cross Harry's face.

'I have no doubt they will be.' Harry glanced at his watch. 'They'll be back at the flats by now. I better ring Hex and see how things are shaping up.'

* * *

Amber crept out of Li's room and quietly shut the door. She held the bowl at arms length and hurried to the kitchen, careful not to slop any of the vomit out onto the floor. That morning, at Alva's, Li had woken up in agony. She'd chucked up in the bed and then again on the drive back. Amber had ordered her into bed as soon as they arrived home and Li was now finally asleep, having emptied her stomach yet again, luckily into a bowl this time.

Just as she was giving the bowl a final rinse, Amber heard the telephone ring in the hall. She dumped the bowl on the draining board and hurried to answer it.

'Hello?' Amber said, expecting it to be Hex, Alex or Paulo.

'Hi. Is that Amber?'

'Yeah,' said Amber slowly. She recognised the voice, but couldn't place it.

'It's Lilia. Theo's sister.'

'Oh! Hi Lilia. What can I do for you? Does Alva need us to do anything? Li's sick though so we're down a person.'

Lilia cleared her throat. 'Um, no. Mum doesn't need you for anything. I was just wondering whether we could get together sometime. Grab a bite to eat.'

Feeling surprised, Amber answered, 'Sure. That'd be great.'

Lilia must have detected the slightly suspicious note in Amber's tone because she said hurriedly, 'I was a bit rude when I first met you guys because I wasn't sure if I could trust you or not. But you all seem really nice and I wanted to make it up to you all.'

'Ok. Didn't mean to sound so anxious. Li won't be able to come because she can't exactly move and even the mention of food has her heaving. I'll phone the others but I'm sure they'd love to meet up.'

'Awesome. How about this afternoon? There's this great café, Ocean Shore, down by the water. Food's cheap but really good and it's got lovely views,' Lilia enthused.

'That sounds good,' Amber said, scribbling the details on a scrap bit of paper. 'What time?'

After saying goodbye to Lilia and hanging up, Amber frowned. It had never occurred to her before but Lilia would make a perfect candidate for the murderer. Sweet, fragile, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth Lilia. Was she capable of blowing people up just because she didn't agree with their company's actions? Amber didn't have a clue, but she was determined to find out.

* * *

'This is a waste of time,' Paulo grumbled. 'We should be concentrating on Alva.'

'You didn't have to come,' said Hex. 'It's not like we dragged you all the way down here. Harry said it was fine for you and Alex to focus on Alva while we focus on other people.' Paulo shot Hex an angry look and Hex mentally hit himself. Alex and Paulo were still fairly sore that Hex had gone behind their backs and phoned Harry.

'Guys,' Amber sighed. 'Don't fight. We're a unit, a team and we're friends. Now shut up and drink your soda.'

Alex couldn't help grinning. 'Yes mum.' He obediently took a sip of his drink, nudging Paulo to do the same. The tension broke and Amber breathed a sigh of relief. They were undercover, in a potentially dangerous situation and she did not want a split unit.

'I am _so_ sorry,' Lilia puffed, sliding to a stop beside their table and collapsing into a chair next to Amber. 'I had an errand to run and things went a bit... haywire.' She beamed. 'But enough about that. Have you all ordered?' Without waiting for an answer, Lilia flagged down a waitress.

While they were waiting for their food, the five of them chatted. Lilia asked about their pasts and put Alex, Hex, Amber and Paulo on the edge as they delved into their memories and tried to recall all the information on their fake identities. Nothing went seriously wrong though and Lilia seemed satisfied by their answers.

After eating, Lilia insisted on paying the bill and they all walked along the boardwalk, continuing to talk. Hex tried not to show his excitement when Lilia lowered her voice and said, 'Let's stop for a minute. I need to ask you guys something.'

She led them up a set of stone steps and they finally emerged in a shaded clearing. The ocean shifted below them and various seabirds dove for fish further out. Lilia took a deep breath and faced her new friends.

'Can you guys help me with something?'

Alex answered for them all: 'Depends what it is.'

Lilia fiddled with a blade of grass. 'It's a job. Well, part of a job actually. You can't tell my mum, or anyone else for that matter, about it. It's nothing dangerous; you'd just have a parcel to pick up at a warehouse. I have to be somewhere else when the parcel comes in and they person delivering it will refuse to leave it there. Someone has to be there to collect it and take it to my flat.'

'What's in the parcel?' Paulo asked. Amber groaned inwardly and just managed to stop cringing. Why did Paulo have to ask that?

Looking a bit uncomfortable, Lilia mumbled, 'Um... Ah... I'd rather not say. Not that I don't trust you guys,' she added hurriedly, 'but I don't want anything... bad to happen to you should the parcel... ah... You know what I mean.'

Amber could Paulo gearing up to ask Lilia another question and she quickly intervened. 'I need to get back to Li but I'm sure one of these guys would love to help.'

Hex shook his head. 'I've got a job interview unfortunately. The joys of working in a fish and chip shop beckon.' He shot Alex a warning look while Amber raised her eyebrows at Paulo, nodding slightly in Lilia's direction.

'Paulo and I can help,' Alex sighed, deciding not to take on Amber and Hex. 'Give us the details and we'll pick it up.'

Lilia smiled in relief. 'Thank you so much.' She was already writing information down on a piece of paper. As she pressed the paper into Alex's hand, Lilia added quietly, 'Can you burn that when you're done?' Alex nodded, not letting any surprise show on his face.

'Sure.' He smiled tightly and pushed the paper into his pocket.

Lilia stood up and stretched. 'I have to go but I'll see you all later?'

Amber nodded, waving at Lilia. 'See ya!'

They watched Lilia walk away before springing up. Hex grabbed Amber's arm and started to drag her in the direction of Lilia but Alex jerked on Hex's shirt.

'This was your idea,' he said, pointing at Lilia's retreating back. 'Why do we'- he jerked a thumb in Paulo's direction- 'have to go pick up a parcel?'

Hex was still walking away, pulling Amber with him. 'Because Amber and I are going to tail her. She said she had a job to get to and I for one want to know what it is.'


	9. Revelations

**Just for you, TotallyBookworm, I have put a titch of romance in this chapter; I was thinking about this scene and decided that I wanted to write it with the little moment. Don't think it will build onto anything though; just a little idea that was jumping around in my head and annoying me, so thought I'd get it out and onto paper. I am sort of amazed that no one (or so I assume) has picked up on a tiny little detail in this story. Maybe I'm not writing this character as glaringly as I should though.**

'Come on!' Hex growled, glaring at the ignition. 'Work, damn it!'

'Calm down,' Amber said, trying to sound soothing, but she was feeling just as anxious as Hex was. Lilia's car was about 30 metres in front of Hex's and she could see the finely built young women waiting for an opportunity to pull out into the road.

'Thank God,' Hex sighed as the car gave a cough and clattered into life. He jerked the wheel and pulled out into the road, ignoring the oncoming traffic. Lilia had also started to drive off and she was about five cars ahead of them.

'Don't let her out of your sight, Amber,' Hex said. Amber nodded, sitting slightly off centre to keep Lilia's little blue car in her line of sight.

'Going left.' Amber didn't even bother turning her head to see if Hex had understood her. Hex spun the wheel and followed Lilia down a side street, heading out of the centre of Bournemouth, down the coast. There were only two cars between them now and Amber chewed her lip nervously, sliding down in her seat a bit. If Lilia recognised them... well, the whole mission would be just about blown.

Coming out into a main street, Hex swore. 'Where did she go?'

Amber sat back up, eyes darting to look for Lilia's car. 'Down there!' she cried, pointing to their right. Hex hopped across a lane and sped after Lilia, careful not to lose sight of her again, but also careful to keep his distance.

They'd ended up in a run-down street with cheap, untidy houses and, at the very end of the street, a few warehouse and storage units. Hex parked the car outside a house, about 30 metres from where Lilia had parked. As Lilia got out of the car, Hex realised with horror that she was going to look straight at them. The car wouldn't be a problem; Lilia hadn't really seen it and she sure wouldn't remember it, but one glance would be enough for her to recognise Amber and Hex. Thinking on the spot, Hex turned to Amber and kissed her, positioning his body so he would block Lilia's view, hoping Lilia wouldn't hang around outside and that she couldn't see past his back. A few seconds later, he pulled away from Amber and shot a quick, nervous glance in the direction of Lilia's car, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her go inside the storage unit. He looked back at Amber, to see her staring at him, a weird and unreadable expression on her face.

'Sorry about that,' he said. 'I didn't want her to recognise us so...'

Amber shook her head. 'No. No. Don't worry. I just...' An awkward silence settled over the car as they waited for Lilia.

Hex was grateful when Lilia emerged from the storage unit a few minutes later, a box in her arms. His relief turned to awkwardness again as he realised she was going to drive straight past them again. He shot an apologetic look at Amber before kissing her again as Lilia drove past them. Once she was past, Hex pulled back and started the car up again, not wanting to lose Lilia a second time.

Amber, still feeling slightly uncomfortable and confused, ignored her churning stomach and concentrated at the task at hand. Lilia was driving almost recklessly down the streets, keeping right on the speed limit; she obviously had somewhere to be.

'Come on, Lilia,' Hex murmured. 'Give us some real evidence.' As if she'd heard him, Lilia suddenly darted down a side street and pulled up outside a house. Without even looking around, she grabbed the box off the passenger seat and hurried inside.

'And now we wait,' Amber said.

Hex nodded. 'And now we wait.'

* * *

Paulo was muttering under his breath as he drove to the drop off point Lilia had wrote down. Alex couldn't understand him and he was sure Paulo was swearing in Spanish.

'This sucks,' Alex said suddenly.

Paulo looked sideways before saying, 'Too right, _hombre_.' He consulted the map on his lap before continuing, 'I don't know why Amber and Hex had to tail Lilia. Yes, they both think she's up to something but then wouldn't it make more sense if one of them had of gone to the drop-off point of one of us had of tailed Lilia.' He looked at Alex again. 'Was that confusing?'

Alex shook his head. 'No. I get what you're saying and it _does_ make more sense, but well... I think we all know why this plan ended up the way it did.'

Smirking, Paulo said, 'Li told me that Amber stormed out the other night when she got onto the subject Hex. She was almost crying she was laughing so hard.' He chuckled and turned down another street. 'They're pathetic.'

'You can't exactly talk, Paulo,' Alex said.

Rolling his eyes, Paulo, still grinning, pulled up outside the warehouse. As they got out of the car, Paulo added, 'Am I denying it?'

They walked up to the warehouse and slipped in through a side door.

'Oi! What da 'ell do you two fink ya doin'?' A burly middle aged guy, tattoos plastered up both arms and legs, spotted them and came running over. He pulled up a few metres from them and glared. 'Well?'

'Lilia Silva sent us to collect a parcel,' Alex began.

'Did she now,' the guy smirked. 'And 'ow do I know ya tellin' da truth?'

'Big bang. Revenge is sweet. Turkey crisps,' stated Paulo.

The guy's face went from suspicious and unpleasant to open and friendly. 'Name's Cal,' he said, coming forward to shake Alex and Paulo's hands. 'Sorry 'bout that. Can't be too careful though. Lil's package shouldn't fall into the wrong 'ands, know what I mean?' Cal winked and beckoned to them. He walked across the warehouse and stooped to pick up a medium-sized box by a desk.

'Thanks,' said Paulo.

'No probs!' Cal beamed. 'Tell Lil not to worry 'bout the dough. My treat. Anyfing I can do to 'elp.' He shook his head and muttered, 'Ruddy bastards,' under his breath before heading off across the warehouse.

Paulo and Alex quickly exited the warehouse, mindful of their deadline. Alex, holding the box tightly in his hands, was itching to know what was inside.

As they got in the car and Paulo started the engine, Alex groaned, 'God, this is killing me.'

Without even asking Alex what he meant, Paulo nodded. 'It's so torture.' He snuck a quick look at the box. 'Can't you hear it, begging to be opened?'

'Great excuse,' Alex chuckled. 'Sorry, Lilia, but it was asking for it.'

'She better let us see what's in there or I'll do something drastic.' Paulo pulled out of the parking space, wanting to get to Lilia's flat as soon as possible.

* * *

Tanya's breath came in short gasps. Her eyes darted anxiously to the door every few seconds, checking that no one was coming inside. _I can't believe I'm doing this_, she screamed mentally. _If I'm caught..._

Harry's desk drawers were a jumbled mess. Papers were everywhere and it took Tanya many precious minutes to locate the file she wanted.

'Where is it?' she muttered under her breath, flipping through page after page of text. Finally she found the relevant page and, after scanning the writing on it, she groaned.

'Oh no. Bad, bad, bad.' Tanya brought her breathing back under control and hurriedly put the desk to right. It was in such a shambles that Tanya doubted whether Harry would actually know anyone had been through his files anyway.

Slipping out of the office, Tanya pulled her mobile from her pocket and keyed in the number she knew so well. Tapping her foot, she anxiously awaited for the person on the other end to pick up.

'Idiot!' she hissed when the phone was finally answered.

'What?' the voice on the other end sounded surprised. 'What are you talking about, Tanya?'

'Why didn't you check with me first?' Tanya was riding on the very edge of panic, feeling scared, anxious and angry all at the same time. 'I told you I could get checks on people before you use them.'

'Whatever,' the flippant reply came without hesitation. 'I can trust them, Tanya.'

'Oh really,' Tanya almost sobbed.

For the first time the recipient of the call sounded worried. 'Tanya? What's wrong?'

'They work for MI5!' hissed Tanya. 'They're undercover officers, sent in to find who's blowing up the _One Way Forward _employees.'

'Shit!' There was a pause. 'You sure?'

'Positive.' Sliding down the wall, Tanya ended up sitting on the floor, legs pulled up tight to her chest with her head resting on her knees. 'This is really bad.'

'Hell!' There was a crash as something was kicked before a barrage of swearing flitted into Tanya's ear.

'Hey!' she said. 'Don't take it out on me. You were dumb enough to get all cosy with them without checking with me first.'

'Yes, Tanya. I get it.' There was sigh before, 'They have to go.'

Tanya felt her eyes widen uncontrollably. 'Go?' she echoed, dread dropping into her heart like a heavy weight.

'Permanently. They saw a package I had...'

'Oh, God,' Tanya whispered.

'Don't sound so mortified. I've done it before and I'll do it again. I'm not asking you for help, even though you were a great hand last time.'

The silence stretched for what seemed like an eternity. 'No,' Tanya found herself saying at last. 'I'll help.'

'They've already seen too much. Sooner the better. Tonight ok for you?'

Tanya swallowed hard, closed her eyes and answered. 'Yeah. Tonight's fine, Lilia.'

**I think this fics going to wind up in two or three chapters. I've got another one planned and the first chapter's half written. It'll be set after this one but only so they'd be trusted enough to go on the mission I have planned. Some of the characters from this fic may make another appearance as well. **

**I have a confession: I love, absolutely love, first person writing. I love writing it and I love reading it. The fic mentioned above will be written in first person, with one character's point of view for each chapter most likely. Hopefully it'll give you all a bit more of an insight into their individual characters and be a bit different. Either way, it's something I've wanted to do for a while and I thought the mission I have planned will be perfect for first person. All going well, I'll probably stick with first person from here on. I'm rambling now so I'm going to stop. **


	10. Absolute Terror

Amber, standing outside of Lilia's flat, half-turned and gave Hex, settled in the driver's seat of his car parked across the road, a nervous smile. He waved and mimed knocking at the door. Amber, curbing her sudden desire to role her eyes and say something sarcastic, raised her fist and banged on the door. There was a sudden silence, followed by quick footsteps before the door opened a crack and one of Lilia's emerald eyes peered out. She gave a slight squeak at the sight of Amber, fidgeting anxiously outside the door, before she opened the door up the entire way and jerked Amber inside.

'I got the box,' Amber said in a rush as Lilia dragged her down the hallway into the kitchen. Lilia merely nodded Amber felt a split second of relief before becoming worried. Surely Lilia should have asked why she and not Paulo and Alex were delivering the box.

Amber's slight uneasiness blossomed into utter terror when Lilia grabbed Amber's arm roughly and pulled her into the lounge room. After pushing Amber onto the couch, Lilia cleared her throat and one of the curtains moved aside slightly as a figure stepped into view.

'Tanya!' Amber gasped. She fell silent just seconds later as Tanya casually brought her hands out from behind her back, a gun held in one.

'Are you going to kill me?' Amber asked, surprised by how brave and nonchalant her voice sounded.

'Not right now,' Lilia answered, smiling brightly at Amber from across the room. 'Soon though.'

'So I guess you're a traitor then, Tanya. Sold us out, hey? How much did she pay you?'

Once again, Lilia answered instead of Tanya. 'I happen to be a good friend of Tanya's. We've helped each other out a lot.' Lilia frowned as though her mouth was separate from her brain and had just done something she hadn't wanted it to do.

'You do know that my "disappearance" isn't going to be easy to explain. Everyone knows I was with you this afternoon. You'll be the prime suspect, especially since you were under suspicion for the _One Way Forward_ bombings.' Amber wasn't sure if she should be telling Lilia all this but she was trying to distract her. Her mobile phone had been in her jeans pocket and she'd managed to pull it out without arousing suspicion. Turning slightly, Amber raised her eyebrows and gave a humourless laugh while her thumbs worked like lightning to write and send the text. 'But Tanya can fix all that can't she?' Amber jabbed the send button and casually pushed the phone down into the couch cushions. Lilia's eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't come forward. Instead, she walked across the room to Tanya, took her gun and gave her a coil of rope.

'Tie her up. Just her hands, though; we need her to walk to the car. Oh, and gag her as well.' Lilia reached around behind her a pulled a curtain tie of a hook on the wall.

Tanya quickly obeyed, tying Amber's hands in front of her and knotting the fabric around her mouth, all the while keeping her eyes averted. Amber glared at Tanya, but the ex-MI5 officer kept her head down and roughly pulled Amber to her feet.

'Down the back way,' Lilia called behind her as she walked out of the room. 'I think we'd better put her where she won't be any bother.'

* * *

Hex's phone beeped happily. He opened the message without realising it; his attention was directed solely towards Lilia's flat. Glancing down at the phone, Hex read the message and groaned.

_Help. Tanya + Lilia. Traitor. _

The meaning was much clearer than the actual message. Tanya was in cahoots Lilia and had most likely told her that they were all with MI5. Amber had walked into a trap.

Hex quickly dialled Harry's office number and waited through the ringing. A dozen or so rings later, he got a recorded message. Cursing, Hex hung up and tried Harry's mobile, getting an answer almost straight away.

'Hi, Hex!' Harry sounded very cheerful. 'Where are you? I'm-'

'No time,' Hex said hurriedly. 'Tanya's working with Lilia. Amber just went into Lilia's flat to deliver a parcel and she just sent me a text asking for help.'

'WHAT?!' Harry sounded outraged, sceptical and worried. 'Repeat that,' he said. 'But slower and with more detail.'

Hex recounted what had happened and waited while Harry swore and rustled some paper.

'Well,' he eventually said,' I'm actually in your apartment right now.'

'In Bournemouth?'

'Yep.' There was a sigh and more rustling. 'There's nothing you can do. Come back to your apartment and we'll go from there.'

'But Harry,' Hex started, 'Amber could be in serious danger.'

'I know, but you can't do anything. Yes you're outside Lilia's flat but she'd have gone by now. And before you even think about going inside,' he added as Hex began to speak again, 'remember that she'll be armed and ready for trouble. As a matter of fact, she'll be expecting trouble.' Yet another sigh. 'Don't worry, Hex. She'll be fine. I'll get police out looking straight away, but you need to come back immediately. You could well be next on her hit list.' With that ominous warning, Harry hung up. Hex kept the phone to his ear for a few seconds after, hearing the dial tone. With a heavy heart, Hex started the car and pulled out of the parking space, heading back towards his apartment.

* * *

'...yes. Amber Middleton... Lilia Silva and Tanya Henderson... Very dangerous. We believe that Lilia is directly involved in the bomb attacks... Thank you so much Inspector... Will do.' Harry's voice echoed down the hallway as Hex let himself into the flat.

'Hello?' he called out.

'Hex!' Li exploded from the lounge room, cannoning into Hex and hugging him hard. 'Thank God.' She sneezed a few times and quickly wiped her nose with a tissue. 'Harry's in here.' Hex followed Li into the lounge room, where Harry was pacing the room while Alex and Paulo sat on the edge of two of the chairs.

'Look who's here,' Li sniffed.

All three heads turned, mirroring each other's tight smiles. Outside, sirens wailed.

'They're sending out some people to look at Lilia's flat, see if they can find anything there that might let us know where they've taken Amber,' Harry said by way of explanation. Hex merely nodded and perched on the arm of the sofa. Li sat next to him and squeezed his hand. The five of them sat in silence, listening to the sirens grow louder and louder.

* * *

As the lid of the boot slammed shut, Amber fought down her panic and tried to concentrate on keeping her breathing even. The boot was fairly large, but she was still squished. Her bound hands were rubbing on the coarse rope and the friction was painful. The darkness was absolute; not a chink of light filtered through and Amber's eyes hadn't yet adjusted.

For a few minutes the car was still until suddenly it exploded into life. The vibrations startled Amber and she whimpered with fear, huddling into an even tighter ball. Now she could understand why Hex was claustrophobic. It felt as if there was a huge weight pressing down on her chest and she could do nothing to get rid of it. Every time she moved, the weight was there, getting steadily heavier.

Tears came to Amber's eyes as she thought of Hex, Li, Alex and Paulo. If Lilia carried out her threat, which was very likely, she'd never see her friends again. For some reason that prospect was even more terrifying than her unknown fate, than being locked in the darkness. Despite her promises not to cry, Amber felt warm tears trickle down her cheeks. She didn't make a sound or any movement, but the tears flowed down her face, dripping onto the floor of the boot.

_I've been in bad situations before_, Amber told herself. _This one is no worse. I'll be fine._ The little pep talk made a little difference, but deep in her heart, Amber felt nothing but complete terror.


	11. All Or Nothing

As the boot was thrown open, Amber couldn't help but whimper and cringe. Lilia chuckled and pulled Amber from the boot, dumping her on the ground. She turned her back and started to walk away, but not before she heard Amber's muttered comment.

'What did you say?' Lilia hissed, turning back to Amber.

Realising she had just landed herself in even hotter water, Amber tried to bluff her ay out. 'Huh? What? I didn't say anything.'

Lilia growled and reached Amber in two huge strides. She viciously kicked Amber in the knee, grinning as Amber gasped and clutched her leg in agony. 'Watch your mouth,' she added, walking away again.

Tears of frustration and pain welled up in Amber's eyes but she blinked them away. Still gripping her injured knee, Amber looked around her properly, knowing that if she was to have any chance of escaping she'd need to be familiar with the surrounding area. They appeared to have ended up in a warehouse. A solid block of concrete stretched for 20 metres in either direction. Boxes were piled in one corner and, Amber noticed with secret delight, a few metres to the left of them was a window. There were no other windows in the warehouse and the doors had padlocks attached to them. In the opposite corner to the boxes sat four cars and, leaning on the bonnet of one of the cars, were Lilia and Tanya. Tanya had a lit cigarette hanging out one corner of her mouth and she was sucking on it anxiously.

'What do we do with her now?' Tanya asked. She took the cigarette out of her mouth and blow out a puff of smoke.

'We have to leave,' began Lilia. 'We're both in deep shit now. We'll get rid of her and all the evidence.'

'How?'

Lilia pulled Tanya's cigarette lighter out of her friend's grip and flicked it. A small tongue of flame leapt upwards. 'Fire. Start a fire, boxes destroyed, she's burned to death... Everyone's happy and we're home free.'

Tanya nodded slowly before dropping her cigarette on the ground and grinding it under the toe of her boot. 'Do we have to kill her?' she asked suddenly.

'What?' Lilia looked at Tanya and gave her a reassuring yet threatening smile. 'Of course we do.' She put her hands on Tanya's shoulders and squeezed gently. 'You know we have to.'

'I don't know if I can do this, Lilia,' mumbled Tanya, trying to turn away from Lilia, but being stopped by the hands holding her shoulders tightly.

'I think you can,' said Lilia forcefully. 'I know you can.' Releasing her grip on Tanya's shoulders, Lilia picked up the lighter again and pressed it into her friend's hand. 'Prove me right.'

Tanya flicked the lighter, making a flame leap then die, leap then die. In an almost trance-like state, Tanya started to walk towards the boxes, still flicking the lighter. As she passed by, Amber called out to her.

'Tanya, please. Think about this.' Amber had to stop as her eyes once again filled with tears. 'Please.'

Tanya halted a metre in front of Amber. For a few seconds she just stood there, staring at the boxes. Suddenly she turned around towards Amber.

'Tanya!' Lilia called sharply. 'Hurry up.'

'I'm sorry, Lilia,' whispered Tanya, before she rushed towards Amber.

There was a howl of rage before a _crack _echoed about the warehouse. For a split second Amber thought Tanya had stumbled, but then she fell heavily to the ground and Amber knew she'd been shot.

'Tanya!' she cried. Despite the fact that just minutes before, Tanya had been about to set fire to the warehouse and leave her to burn, Amber felt sick. She wanted to go and help Tanya but, beside the fact that she was tied up, Lilia had a gun and she was angry as hell.

Tanya was lying deathly still on the cold concrete. Amber had no idea where the bullet had hit, but blood was oozing from her body and forming a huge pool. Amber felt bile rise in her throat and she turned away, unable to bear the sight any longer. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, but she could still hear Lilia bustling about, tutting quietly to herself.

'I think I'll take you, Licketty Split,' Lilia cooed, patting a lime green car on its bonnet. 'We'll be outta here as soon as I've dealt with a teensy little problem.' Amber heard Lilia's footsteps get closer and she couldn't help but open her eyes, though as soon as she did she wished she hadn't. Lilia had casually grabbed Tanya's shoulder and rolled her over before grabby her clammy hand and pulling the lighter from her grip. The blood spreading about her didn't seem to faze Lilia in the slightest. She sighed.

'Sorry, Tanya, but I guess I should never have trusted you.' For a split second, sadness showed in her eyes, but all too quickly it was gone. Lilia barely glanced at Amber before she hurried over to the boxes, bending down and touching the flame to several bits of cardboard. The flames quickly took hold, lunging greedily at the boxes and engulfing them with fire. Lilia surveyed her handiwork before hurrying back to her car and chucking two bags into the backseat. The door was unlocked and Lilia drove through. Amber felt a glimmer of hope, but it was quickly squashed when the car stopped and Lilia once again locked the door, but this time from the outside.

Smoke curled towards her and Amber gave a racking cough. Panic whelmed up inside her and Amber realised with horror that if she didn't get out in the next few minutes, she was going to burn to death. The window was the only option, but to climb up to and out of it, she'd need her hands untied. Steeling herself, Amber wriggled over to Tanya's body and gently nudged through her pockets, trying to find a knife or something sharp enough to break through the ropes. A small knife in Tanya's sock provided Amber with the break she needed. Awkwardly holding the knife between her feet, Amber sawed carefully at the rope, all too aware of the fire raging nearby.

* * *

Inspector Fenway grabbed her radio and listened intently. Immediately Harry, Hex, Li, Alex and Paulo all sat up straighter and tried to hear what was going on, but the radio static was terrible and it was obvious that even Fenway was having a hard time deciphering the message.

'What was it?' Li asked as the Inspector dropped the radio and grabbed her hat.

'It might be nothing,' she answered, 'but there's a report of a fire down by the storage warehouses on Kings Street. No one lives down there but apparently the smoke's fairly visible now.' Fenway ended up talking to herself as her five companions leapt out of their chairs and darted out of the door.

* * *

The last strand of rope finally snapped. Amber coughed again, feeling the smoke sear her lungs and throat, but she pushed herself upright and staggered towards the window. The heat closer to the fire was almost unbearable, but Amber gritted her teeth and moved nearer, determined to get out. One of the cars was parked fairly near to the window and Amber clambered on top of it. Standing on the roof, arms stretched up, the window was still just under a metre above her. Tiredness overwhelmed her and Amber felt a sudden longing to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. She felt desperately thirsty and light-headed, but put it down to the fire.

Gathering every last ounce of strength and courage, Amber crouched slightly and sprung towards the window. Her hands flailed for the edge and just managed to snag it. A split second later, Amber's body slammed into the concrete wall and she felt a wave of pain explode in her knee again. Ignoring it, Amber pulled herself desperately up, trying to get her whole body up and out of the window, but she just didn't have the energy. Her fingers were in danger of slipping and Amber wondered what would happen if she just let go.

Suddenly, the wail of sirens cut into her thoughts. It sparked Amber's last reserves of strength, knowing that help was on the way and, with a furious cry, she pulled herself up to the window ledge. Half hanging out the window, Amber's vision swam slightly but she shook her head and cleared it. Flashing lights, wailing sirens and people rushing every where. Amber looked down and saw, just to her left, a group of firemen rushing about, trailing a fire hose after them. Police swarmed in from her left and then, finally, someone looked up and noticed her.

'Get a ladder!' someone yelled. Amber smiled in relief, glad that someone else was taking over, making decisions for her, and lost consciousness.

* * *

'How are you feeling?' Alex asked.

Amber shrugged and indicated "so-so" with her hand. 'Been worse but then I've been a lot better as well.'

'I'm just glad you're ok,' said Li with feeling, hugging Amber with one arm.

It was the day after the warehouse incident, as Harry had now dubbed it, and Amber was recuperating in hospital. After she'd been rescued from the warehouse, Amber had been put in an ambulance, given oxygen and insulin, before being whisked off to hospital. This was the first chance that the five friends had had to catch up.

'They caught Lilia,' Paulo said quietly. 'She was trying to leave for Spain but they nabbed her at the airport. She'll be in prison for a _long_ time.'

'Good,' Li nodded. 'After what she did she deserves to never come out.'

'Harry was mortified to learn about Tanya,' added Hex.

'The fact that she's dead or the fact she betrayed his trust and endangered God knows how many lives?' Amber raised an eyebrow.

'Both, but I think he was more shocked than angry that she was working with Lilia.'

There was silence for a few minutes before Amber ventured, 'Speaking of Harry... What did he say exactly?'

'About what?' Li asked.

'This mission as a whole.'

'Oh. He said that we did well under the circumstances and, considering it was our first mission, he was amazed that we got a result.'

'Not much of a result though, is it?' sighed Amber sadly. 'Tanya wound up dead and I was almost burnt to death. Lilia almost got away and heaps of evidence was destroyed.'

'Harry didn't seem to think it was that bad.' Alex leaned back in his chair and grinned. 'He even said something about having another mission for us already.'

'Yeah right,' scoffed Amber. 'We'll be up to our ears in paperwork until we retire.'

'You never know,' Alex continued. 'But all that matters now is that we're alive and relatively well. Focus on that for the moment and don't worry about our next mission, if and when we get it.'

Harry stepped away from the ward door, smiling to himself. _They have no idea what I've got in store for them_, he thought. Pulling out his mobile phone, Harry walked outside; he had a few phone calls to make.

**The first chapter of my next fic will most likely be up tomorrow. Like I said, it ties in with this one sort of, but not too much. Hope you've enjoyed this fic and I'll apologise for my writing towards the end. It sounded a bit sloppy to me, but I've rewrote parts of it time after time and couldn't really do much else to it. Some chapters just are difficult to write.**


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